Commissioner and Minister of state From 2001 to 2004, Oquaye served as Ghana's High Commissioner to India. In February 2005, he became Minister of Energy, and later he was moved to the post of Minister of Communications. Member of Parliament Oquaye was the NPP Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya for two terms, from 2004 to 2012. He decided not to stand for another term. He sponsored his son, Mike Oquaye Jnr, to fight to be the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for the constituency. His son however lost to Sarah Adwoa Safo, who went on to win the seat. From 2009 to 2013, Oquaye was the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He was succeeded by Joe Ghartey in 2013. Speaker of Parliament Oquaye served as the Speaker of Parliament in the seventh parliament of the Fourth Republic. In 2021, he was nominated by the New Patriotic Party for the role as a Speaker of Parliament in which he lost to Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin on 7 January who was nominated by the National Democratic Congress. Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin announced at the first sitting of parliament that he was elected by 138 votes while Mike Oquaye garnered 136 votes. Personal life Oquaye is a pastor of the Baptist Church. He is married to Alberta Oquaye (née Asafu-Adjaye) (Major Rtd.) a professional nurse. He is the father of Mike Oquaye Jnr, Ghana's current High Commissioner to India. Oquaye's hobbies include watching football, playing table tennis, reading books, writing, and listening to music. Bibliography Written works Politics in Ghana, 1982–1992 (Tornado Publications, 1980, ) Democracy, Politics and Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Ghana (Gold-Type Publication, 1995) Controversies In February 2020, there were media agitation to reports that the speaker of Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye has threatened to ban journalist who take coverage of other events in the premises of Parliament other than the chamber. In August 2020, he gave a public lecture in the observance of Founders' Day, in which he claimed that "Independence was not a one man show, it was a collective effort". According to Oquaye, former president Kwame Nkrumah should not be honoured alone but together with all the founding fathers of Ghana. Oquaye also claimed Nkrumah was not alone in the struggle for independence although he fought for Ghana's independence. Nkrumah's son Sekou Nkrumah lambasted Prof. Oquaye for those comments, saying that if the speaker of parliament wanted to criticize his