The story of this man contradicts the popular stereotype of the Ghanaian politician – self seeking, unpatriotic and largely disconnected from the electorate. “How down to earth he is!” I said to myself, as I listened to him in his office in Parliament. His disarmingly welcoming posture melted away my nervousness. At points in time, I felt just as I always feel when I sit with my father to hear him tell a story.
He goes by the name Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin; Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo and the only Ghanaian MP to hold office as both Minority and Majority Leader in the august House of Parliament. Amazement gripped me as I listened to him talk about politics and leadership. He knows so much, I thought to myself!
As a student journalist and not really interested in politics, I had only heard or read a bit about the man in the news media. My first meeting with him however, was like a wake-up call to resolve to read and to learn more about my country and its rich political history. The clarity of his language and turn of phrase made me want to have him as my lecturer for at least one semester. How blessed my colleagues and I would be in our final year in Journalism school!
As our conversation progressed my colleague and I were getting thirsty. We did not tell him we were. As if he read our minds, the Hon. Majority Leader enquired if we would mind a bottle of water each. And from somewhere behind his desk he produced two bottles of mineral water and thrust them into our waiting hands. That was it, matter of fact, no need to call up a Secretary or another subordinate to do his bidding; as I have seen many big men would do. I noticed that this little courteous routine came naturally to the Leader of the House and I made a quick mental note to probe further into this quality he just demonstrated.
Our conversation then drifted into his journey so far as a parliamentarian. He expounded on his many achievements, some of which I already knew. I was stunned nonetheless! Nadowli-Kaleo has grown from a constituency that was skeletal and without any basic social amenities to one that today can boast of a full-fledged District capital, a district hospital including several primary health care facilities, educational facilities, small town water systems and boreholes and countless other social interventions that altogether have contributed towards a much higher living standard for his constituents. I now understood why they have always voted him back into Parliament and why his colleague MPs recently prevailed upon him not to abandon them in 2016.
Contrary to my preconceived impressions of the man and his likes in Politics, he turned out to be welcoming, friendly, open, and was nowhere close to the “god” that I thought of from afar. He was so charmingly down-to-earth that on occasion I lost count of the fact that I was face to face with a veteran politician, one who speaks up no matter the cost to his person or his reputation; one who by dint of hard work and perseverance rose from the difficult living conditions of his home region at the time of his birth to the high performing and well respected MP among his peers in Parliament.
As he ushered us out of his office after our brief encounter, we could not help but celebrate the fact that there were still a few passionate Ghanaians in our country’s public spaces who love what they do fo the good of their motherland.