It is common knowledge that the primary role of Parliament is to enact laws.
Nonetheless, the execution of this function is accidental to several other functions.
Among its many responsibilities, the Ghanaian Parliament is explicitly responsible for the following: legislative, financial, executive supervision, representative, and deliberative. Fulfilling this crucial mandate requires the services of a competent legal expert who is more versatile and historically knowledgeable in the law to chair and regulate government businesses in Parliament.
In this article, we are going to thoroughly unfold the life backgrounds of competent personalities who may be fit for the businesses of Ghana’s 9th Parliament. But among these three persons, who is best for the job?
1. Kingsford Alban Sumana Bagbin
Ghanaian politician, Kingsford Alban Sumana Bagbin, currently serves as Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament. He served in the Ghanaian cabinet from January 2012 until February 2013 as the Health Minister. In the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh parliaments of the fourth republic of Ghana, he represented the Upper West Region of Ghana’s Nadowli West constituency as a Member of Parliament. In 2019, he ran as the National Democratic Congress’ presidential candidate but was defeated by former President John Dramani Mahama. Bagbin was elected Speaker of the Fourth Republic’s 8th Parliament on January 7, 2021.
Early life and education:
Margaret B. Bagbin and Sansunni Bagbin, both peasant farmers, welcomed Albert Sumana Kingsford Bagbin into the world on September 24, 1957. Out of nine children, he is the fourth. He belongs to the ethnic group known as the Dagaaba. He is from Sombo, which is in Ghana’s Upper West Region. Wa Secondary School and Tamale Secondary School are where Alban Bagbin received his education. In 1980, he graduated from the University of Ghana with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Law.
Following his studies at the Ghana School of Law in Makola, Accra, he was admitted to the bar in 1982. Additionally, Bagbin graduated from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) with an Executive Master’s degree in Governance and Leadership.
From 1980 to 1982, Bagbin served as the Bureau of Statistics and Statistical Service’s acting secretary to the Statistical Service Board. Before going to Libya to teach English at the Suk Juma Secondary School in Tripoli, he served as Personnel Manager of the former State Hotels Corporation, which included Ambassador and Continental Hotels, from 1982 to 1983.
Bagbin joined Akyem Chambers, a firm of attorneys, consultants, and notaries public, after returning to Ghana in 1986. becoming a partner after working as an attorney.
He served as the external solicitor for the Nii Ngleshie royal family of James Town, the Credit Unions Association of Ghana (CUA), and a number of other private business businesses in Accra while he was employed at Okyeman Chambers from 1989 to 1992.
He left Okyeman Chambers in 1993 after seven years of employment, and he is currently a partner in the Law Trust company, a firm of attorneys, consultants, and notaries public.
Bagbin’s political life:
He is a National Democratic Congress (NDC) member. He was initially elected to the Ghanaian Parliament in the General Elections of 1992.
In the Upper West Region, he served as the representative for the Nadowli West Constituency. Bagbin said in 2006 that he would run for president on the NDC ticket in 2008, but he never made it to the primaries. In 2009, he was elected as the Ghanaian parliament’s majority leader.
He was named Minister for Water Resources, Works, and Housing by President Mills during a cabinet reshuffle in January 2010. He succeeded Benjamin Kunbuor, who was named Minister of Defense, and served as the Majority Leader of Parliament during President Mahama’s administration.
In the Upper West Region, he served as the representative for the Nadowli West Constituency. Bagbin said in 2006 that he would run for president on the NDC ticket in 2008, but he never made it to the primaries. In 2009, he was elected as the Ghanaian parliament’s majority leader.
He was named Minister for Water Resources, Works, and Housing by President Mills during a cabinet reshuffle in January 2010. He succeeded Benjamin Kunbuor, who was named Minister of Defense, and served as the Majority Leader of Parliament during President Mahama’s administration.
Additionally, he was the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament from January 2017 to January 2021. In 1996, Bagbin received 12,605 votes out of 16,485 valid votes, or 76.46% of the vote, defeating Lawrence Banyen of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who received 2,213 votes, or 13.42% of the vote; Yuoni Moses Vaalandzeri of the People’s National Convention (PNC), who received 1,490 votes, or 9.04%; and Baslide Kpemaal of the NCP, who received 177 votes, or 1.07%.
Bagbin was re-elected as the representative for the Nadwoli North constituency in Ghana’s 2000 elections. With 9,004 votes, or 58.60% of the total votes cast, he defeated independent Dr. Anleu-Mwine D.B., Peoples National Congress candidate Clement Kanfuri Senchi, New Patriotic Party Ningkpeng Pauline, John Bayon Boniface Wetol, and National Reform Party of the United Ghana Movement Party Domayele Marcel Aston, who received 2,089, 718, 145, and 0 votes, respectively.
Nadwoli North was divided into Nadwoli West and Nadwoli East constituencies in 2004 prior to the elections. In the 2004 elections, Bagbin was chosen to represent the Nadowli West constituency in parliament. With 11,296 votes—or 50.5% of the 22,349 valid ballots cast—he was elected. He defeated the PNC’s Clement K. Senchi, the NPP’s Daniel Anleu-Mwine Baga, the Convention People’s Party’s Sasuu Bernard Kabawunu, the Democratic People’s Party’s Bisung Edward, and the independent candidate Dapilaa Ishak, who received 625, 5,297, 152, 188, and 4,791 votes, respectively.
Bagbin is the Speaker of the Fourth Republic of Ghana’s Eighth Parliament. Following a protracted election, he was sworn in on January 7, 2021, after being nominated by Ghanaian lawmakers on the National Democratic Congress ticket. The incumbent, Mike Oquaye, who was the New Patriotic Party’s nominee, lost to Bagbin.
Bagbin ruled in October 2024 that the Ghanaian Constitution forbade MPs from switching parties, therefore declaring four seats held by MPs who did so empty.
The ruling essentially gave the opposition National Democratic Congress a majority in the legislature and led to Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin’s legal appeal in Ghana’s Supreme Court. Then, as the court considered the petition, it directed Bagbin to postpone making a ruling. The Supreme Court of Ghana overturned the Speaker of Parliament’s decision on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, after interpreting Article 97(1)(g) and (h) of the Constitution to suggest that an MP only leaves office during a term of Parliament and not during a subsequent one.
Bagbin is married to Alice Adjua Yornas Bagbin, a UNICEF Office in Ghana Program Officer. He worships as a Roman Catholic and is a Christian.
2. Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho
Ghanaian politician and attorney Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho, MP, served as Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament from 2013 to 2017. He is the first Speaker to be chosen from among the members of Ghana’s parliament under the Fourth Republic of Ghana and the fifth Speaker to be elected in that era. He left his post as the Member of Parliament for the Avenor-Ave constituency in the Ghanaian Parliament after being promoted to the office of Speaker.
During the 20 years of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, which lasted from 1993 to 2013, he was one of the few lawmakers to hold onto their seats in parliament. Additionally, he belonged to the Pan-African Parliament.
Early years and schooling:
On January 3, 1957, Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho was born. After completing his secondary education at the Accra Academy, he went on to the University of Ghana, where he earned his Bachelor of Laws, or LL.B., in 1984.
In order to become a barrister-at-law, he studied at the Ghana School of Law. In 1986, he received his bar call. Before entering politics, he was employed in the Attorney General’s office.
Adjaho works as a lawyer. He was employed at the Department of the Attorney General. Additionally, from January 1993 until January 2013, he served as a member of parliament.
Politics:
Adjaho won his seat in the 1992 legislative election while running on the National Democratic Congress ticket, and he did so in each of the four elections that followed.
Prior to the dissolution of the 6th Parliament on January 6, 2017, he served as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
After winning the 1992 Ghanaian parliamentary election on December 29, 1992, Adjaho was elected to the first parliament of the country’s fourth republic on January 7, 1993.
In the general elections held in Ghana in 2000, he was chosen to represent the Avenor constituency in parliament. The elections were won by him. In that election, the National Democratic Congress gained 19 seats for the Volta Region, including 17 parliamentary seats in his constituency.
In Ghana’s third parliament of the fourth republic, the National Democratic Congress secured a minority of 92 legislative seats out of 200. With 23,981 of the 31,431 valid votes cast, he was elected. This amounted to 78.3% of the votes that were legitimately cast.
He defeated Nicholas C. Megbele of the New Patriotic Party, Vincent K. Norgbedzi of the Convention People’s Party, and Abledu A. Kofi of the United Ghana Movement in the election. Out of the total number of valid votes cast, they received 5,665, 616, and 364 votes, respectively. These accounted for 18.5%, 2%, and 1.2% of all valid votes cast, respectively.
Adjaho practices Christianity. He has five kids and is married.
3. Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo
From 2009 to 2013, Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, JSC, CV, a Ghanaian judge and lawyer, was the country’s first female Speaker of Parliament. She was the first woman elected to that post in the subregion of West Africa. Additionally, Bamford-Addo was the first female justice on Ghana’s Supreme Court. From 1991 until her retirement in 2004, she held the position.
Early life and education:
Joyce Bamford-Addo was born in 1937 to an English father and a Ghanaian mother from Aburi. She had her elementary education at St. Mary’s Boarding School and Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Boarding School in Cape Coast, which she also attended alongside her sister Cynthia. She then pursued her secondary education at Holy Child School, located in Cape Coast. She continued her law education in the United Kingdom. In 1961, she was called to the English Bar after joining the Inner Temple to train under the Inns of Court apprenticeship system.
After a year of employment in the UK, Bamford-Addo went back to Ghana. In 1962, she was admitted to the Ghana Bar. In 1963, she began her career as an Assistant State Attorney and progressed to the position of State Attorney, Senior State Attorney, and Principal State Attorney. In 1973, she was appointed Chief State Attorney. She spent ten years as the Director of Public Prosecutions after being appointed in 1976.
She became the first female justice of Ghana’s Supreme Court when Jerry Rawlings appointed her as a judge in 1991.
She voluntarily retired from the Supreme Court in October 2004 after many years of service in the public sector. She reportedly retired because her junior, Justice George Kingsley Acquah, was chosen to be the Chief Justice instead of her.
Politics:
In 1991, Bamford-Addo was appointed Second Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Consultative Assembly, which was established to prepare the 1992 constitution during the late Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) administration.
She was elected without opposition as the Speaker of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana after the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, succeeding Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes. She was the first woman to hold that office and the second woman to lead an arm of government following Georgina Theodora Wood’s appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana. She surpassed Georgina Theodora Woods to become the highest-ranking female in Ghanaian politics after the election. She joined other female speakers like Betty Boothroyd in the United Kingdom and Nancy Pelosi in the United States of America as the first female speakers of their respective nations, and she gained recognition in Africa and around the world.
Professional associations: Bamford-Addo is a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), the Ghana Bar Association, and the Catholic Lawyers Guild.
She was a member of the Judicial Council (General Legal Council) and the Legal Aid Board while she was employed in the public sector as a Supreme Court judge.
She represented Ghana at a number of international conferences held by the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Awards and recognitions:
In 2000, the American Biographical Institute named Birmingham-Addo the best woman of the year for her unwavering and passionate work on women’s concerns and empowerment. She is regarded as a female trailblazer in Ghanaian law and legislation [16] and serves as an inspiration and role model for women in Ghana in general.
In 2011, she was honored by the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE) at their Global Women Entrepreneur Trade Fair and Investment Forum in Accra. She was joined by other women who held top positions in Ghana, including Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, the first female Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Anna Bossman, the first female Acting Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, the first female Chief Justice.
President John Evans Atta Mills recognized her exceptional contribution to Ghana in October 2011 by bestowing upon her the highest honor of the Order of Volta: the Companion of the Order of the Volta. Bamford-Addo worships as a Roman Catholic and is a devoted Christian.
