Aaron Mike Oquaye

Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye is a political scientist, lawyer and Baptist minister who served as Speaker of Ghana's Parliament from 2017 to 2021. Before that he represented Dome-Kwabenya in Accra for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for two terms, from 2005 to 2013. He was born in Osu on 4 April 1944 and grew up in Asamankese.

Scholar and lawyer

Oquaye attended PRESEC at Odumase-Krobo and Apam Secondary School, then studied at the University of Ghana and in London, earning degrees in political science and law and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He headed the Department of Political Science at Legon and wrote Politics in Ghana, 1972-1979 and a second volume on 1982 to 1992. He also qualified as a barrister in Ghana and in England and Wales.

Politics

He was a founding member of the NPP in 1992 and its first Greater Accra regional secretary. Under President Kufuor he was High Commissioner to India from 2001 to 2004 and then Minister of Energy and Minister of Communications. As MP for Dome-Kwabenya he was Second Deputy Speaker from 2009 to 2013, and he chose not to seek a third term; Sarah Adwoa Safo took the seat for the NPP. In January 2017 he was elected Speaker of the Seventh Parliament. He lost the 2021 Speaker's vote to Alban Bagbin by 138 votes to 136.

He is married to Alberta Oquaye, a retired army major and nurse, and his son Mike Oquaye Jnr was also High Commissioner to India. Faustina Elikplim Akurugu of the NDC holds Dome-Kwabenya today.