SPEAKER BAGBIN STANDS TALL

Speaker Bagbin stands tall. Not in physical stature. After all, he is not your Donald Trump or John Kufuor who both stand at 6.3 feet. But what Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin (ASK Bagbin) lacks in physique is adequately made up for in charisma, aura and intellect. That is why he has this tall, towering presence among his peers across the world.

Wherever he goes, ASK Bagbin commands the kind of attention which comes with years of practicing your art and perfecting your act. Sharp. Incisive. Decisive. Never buckling, neither wavering. The oak tree that is not swayed by windstorms.

So he walks into the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva between 29th and 31st July 2025, and other Speakers could not but acknowledge the commanding presence of not-so-huge a personality. Participants at the Conference push and shove for a handshake, a photo, chit-chat and, of course, bilateral meetings: Speaker of the Palestinian National Council, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Speaker of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Secretary General of the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAL), Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) etc. Aside the bilateral meetings, there are panel discussions to chair and presentations to make at the General Assembly of Speakers. So the itinerary is loaded. And he simply cannot make time for everyone.
After all, he was until recently the Chairman of CPA, and is still the President of CoSPAL. So all the other participants at this Conference, knowing the influence he wields, want him to intervene in one crisis or another, lobby for one position or another, put in a word for them to get one favour or the other.

Then it was his turn to address the General Assembly. ASK Bagbin is never overawed by the moment. He is not known to shy away from the big stage. So as he mounts the podium, shss… Silence. Bagbin speaks ! Rapt attention from the haloed participants who gavel order into parliaments across the world and preside over debates and the crafting of laws that can make or unmake nations.

The Ghanaian Speaker’s message to the world was lucid, punchy and effortlessly articulated in his usual oratory finesse. He bemoaned the protracted conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, through the persistent instability across the Sahel and parts of the Global South, to the recent Israeli-Syrian conflict and the Cambodia-Thailand fracas. Rt. Hon. Bagbin did not mince words in pointing out that the US and NATO’s unilateral posturing is the biggest threat to world peace and progress. According to him, multilateralism and international cooperation are not luxuries, but rather the oxygen that feeds the lungs of a world gasping from the suffocating greed of few superpowers which are bent on ruling the world and plundering its resources. The endangered multilateralism is the glue that can weld the world into one peaceful paradise.

He urged parliaments across the world to step up, not only to legislate and provide oversight within their borders, but to shape the moral, political, and institutional architecture of a more just and peaceful international order. According to him, parliamentary diplomacy, once viewed as complementary, is now essential. Speaker Bagbin indicated that inter-parliamentary cooperation could lead to treaty ratifications, alignment of domestic legislation with international norms, oversight of global commitments such as the SDGs, and the creation of alternative channels for conflict resolution and peace building.

As the audience nodded their approval of his message, the Rt. Hon. Bagbin turned his lenses on the UN, the IMF, and the World Bank, describing them as “… products of World War II, [which] often reflect outdated power dynamics, marginalizing the voices of the developing world. This asymmetry not only undermines confidence in multilateralism, it perpetuates global inequality and limits our collective ability to respond to crises”. The CoSPAL President admonished Speakers of Parliament to collectively and assertively advocate for reforms that democratize global governance, ensure fairer representation, and support inclusive development.

As the world listened to ASK Bagbin, the Conference participants nodded in consent. The US too heard the message clearly. But will the world’s mightiest nation heed this voice of reason? Perhaps not. At the end the address, applause. Standing ovation is not the norm at this gathering. So just a loud exaltation to a deeply-touching speech which talks truth to power.

His day goes on and on and on until his handlers, much younger folks, begin dropping off their feet. But he has the energy to keep going on. Because everyone must have a piece of him. When his day in Geneva is finally done, one thing is clear. ASK Bagbin is a leader. Leader, not just of the Ghanaian Parliament which nursed and groomed him, but a bold leader of legislatures across the world.

Soon, it is time to jet off to Boston. For the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Created in 1975, NCSL was formed by US state legislators and legislative staff to serve America’s 50 states, the commonwealth and the District of Columbia.

Question: How is it that aside US legislators, only Ghana and Quebec are members of the International Council of NCSL, this rather picky but prestigious US legislative assemblage? Answer: Ghana’s presence in the haloed House is the result of ASK Bagbin’s instrumentality and his worldwide acclaim as a bastion of legislative wisdom which even the world’s biggest democracy must benefit from.

So how does one get this much attention, respect and reverence? How does an African legislative leader navigate the complex geopolitics of the world to keep standing tall, strong and solid, unshaken by the tremors of a post-cold war international politicking? As his colleagues across the world have come to attest, when in doubt or needing answers to complex questions, ASK Bagbin. He sure has the answers.