The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has disclosed that he groomed current Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu into becoming an astute politician.
According to him, he took particular interest in Haruna when he was the President of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and continued to mentor him when he entered Parliament, but that was not without an initial resistance from the young politician.
Speaking on Starr Chart with Bola Ray Wednesday, Hon. Bagbin who’s currently the longest serving Parliamentarian under the Fourth Republic described Haruna Iddrisu as one of the finest young politicians Ghana can boast of.
“I knew Haruna when he was NUGS president and at that time I was already a Member of Parliament. I took particular interest in him. When he came to Parliament and I tried grooming him initially he resisted some of the things I asked him to do and brought in some big men to talk to me. And I sat them down and I told them that I’ve seen something in him and I wanted to market him and so please this is my area, allow me to groom the young ones and they did. And so I kept an eye on him, I go to his constituency with him and go round the place to tell them that…you’re lucky you’ve got a good representative, don’t change him. I’ve done it for a number of Members of Parliament.”
Haruna Iddrisu was born in 1970 at Tamale, Ghana. Iddrisu studied at the University of Ghana between 1993 and 1997 where he obtained the B.A. (Hons) in Sociology. He was active in student politics and was the President of the National Union of Ghana Students during his final year. Iddrisu is also a barrister and has been a member of the Ghana Bar Association since 2002.
He is the Minority Leader of the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic in Ghana. Iddrisu has been the National Youth Organiser for the National Democratic Congress since 2002. He stood for parliament in the 2004 parliamentary election in the newly formed Tamale South constituency.
Haruna Iddrisu retained his seat in the 2008 parliamentary election. He has held various positions in government, including Minister for Communications under the Mills and Mahama governments as well as Minister for Trade between 2013 and 2014. He was appointed the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations by President Mahama in July 2014.