Obiri Boahen blasts Speaker Bagbin for recent comment

Private legal practitioner, Lawyer Nana Obiri Boahen has said the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, refuting reports in the media that he said the next president of Ghana will come from the northern part of the country is needless.

According to Obiri Boahen, the Speaker stated an obvious fact hence, needless for him to come out with a denial statement.

"Speaker Bagbin stated facts and reality. Whether we like it or otherwise, the next general election is between NPP and NDC. In the likely event that Bawumia becomes NPP's flag bearer, we're going to have a President from the north.

"…and if I were Bagbin, I'd have stood on what I said instead of denying the realities. After all, you've stated your mind, and it is not a crime," the NPP leading member said when he appeared on Wontumi TV.

According to the Office of the Speaker of Parliament, a statement he made at Damongo in the Savannah Region, when he called on the Yagbonwura as part of the 30th-anniversary celebrations of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy in Ghana, is being misconstrued to mean that he was saying the next president of Ghana will either be Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia or former President John Dramani Mahama.

In the statement issued on June 15, 2023, the Speaker’s office explained that Alban Bagbin was only saying that northerners should take pride in being represented by their own at higher offices.

“We wish to place on record that although the Speaker referred to the two politicians at the said event, it was not an exercise in prediction.

“He suggested that what should be of interest to the people in northern Ghana, in which context he was speaking, is that they will be well represented at the apex of Ghana’s political structure, and that should be a source of pride to them," the statement added.