Today is the birthday of Hon. Aaron Mike Oquaye, www.ghanacelebrations.com wishes you a happy birthday.
Aaron Mike Oquaye (born 4 April 1944) is a Ghanaian barrister and politician who served as the sixth Speaker of Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana from 2017 to 2021. An academic, diplomat, and Baptist minister, he previously held the cabinet ministerial portfolios for energy and communication and was also the Ghanaian High Commissioner to India and Maldives in the Kufuor administration.
Early life
Aaron Mike Oquaye was born on 4 April 1944 in Osu, Accra to E. G. N Oquaye of Osu and Felicia Awusika Abla Oquaye (née Azu) of Odumase-Krobo. He was brought up at Asamankese in the Eastern Region, where he attended the Roman Catholic Primary School and Presbyterian Middle School before proceeding to Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary (PRESEC), at Odumase-Krobo and then Apam Senior High School.
Oquaye’s father, E.G.N. Oquaye, had been a founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) at Asamankese. He was also treasurer and principal financier of the UGCC, Gold Coast Party (GCP), National Liberation Movement (NLM), and United Party (UP) at Asamankese. When Oquaye was a child, his family received political figures and dignitaries such as Dr. J. B. Danquah and Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia as guests at their homes. While the Okyenhene, Nana Ofori Atta II, was in exile in Accra, he was also a regular visitor to the Oquaye family home in Asamankese.
Education and legal career
He attended the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior Secondary School for his GCE “O” Level Certificate and Apam Secondary School for his “A” Level Certificates. He entered the University of Ghana and later the University of London, at Lincoln’s Inn, London. He holds B.A. (Hons.) Political Science, L.L.B. (Hons.), B.L. and Ph.D. He is a qualified solicitor and barrister, as well as the founder and senior partner of his own law firm. He is a barrister of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, a senior member of the Ghana Bar Association, and a solicitor for some leading companies and financial institutions.
Academic career
He is a professor of Political science at the University of Ghana, (Legon), and was previously the Head of the Department of Political Science and a member of the university’s Academic Board, the highest authority at the level of the faculties. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, as well as winning the Rockefeller Senior Scholar Award in 1993 and the Senior Fulbright Scholar Award in 1997. He has been a visiting lecturer at George Mason University in Virginia. From 1997 to 1999, he was vice-president of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), based in Zimbabwe.
Writings and advocacy
Oquaye is a writer, who has researched and written extensively on good governance, conflicts, political education, decentralization and development, human rights, military intervention in politics, NGOs, rural development, and gender issues. He advocates women’s rights, including affirmative action. He is the author of the award-winning book Politics in Ghana – 1972-1979, in which he depicts, inter-alia, the military as the bane of Government and Politics in Africa and recounted instances of human rights abuses, and conflictual politics, economic mismanagement, and national decadence. He wrote a second volume, Politics in Ghana – 1982-1992, dealing with the politics of revolution, CDRs, Public Tribunals, popular power, positive defiance, and human rights issues of the period. His scholarly write-ups have been published in international journals such as Human Rights Quarterly (US), Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (UK), African Affairs (UK), and Review of Human Factor Studies (Canada).
Political career
As a student at the University of Ghana, Oquaye joined the campaign for the J. B. Danquah / Kofi Abrefa Busia cause. He strongly supported Busia’s call for a quick return to civilian rule to prevent the militarization of the state and, along with his family, helped to establish the Progress Party in Osu in 1969.
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