The Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central, Henry Quartey, has explained why he was initially reluctant in accepting his appointment as Greater Accra Regional Minister.
President Nana Akufo-Addo in an interview on Accra-based Peace FM on Thursday divulged that Mr Quartey was hoping to play a different role in his government.
But speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe, the Minister said after being a deputy at National Security in the Akufo-Addo administration’s first term, he wanted to be maintained.
“Naturally, I love being in the security areas so I was hoping that I will be maintained there [National Security].
“So when Mr President called me to inform me about my new position I said ‘Oh, I thought that you were going to leave me there,’ and he said ‘No, this is what I have for you,’ So I accepted it,” he explained to Emefa Apawu on Sunday.
He further mentioned that his main objective is to serve and contribute his quota to the development of the country, thus, he accepted his new job in good faith.
“I am here to serve, it is not what I want. But the President is the coach; he has a formula and he knows which player to play a particular role to suit the main plan that he has so when he said ‘Regional Minister’, I said ‘Yes sir’.”
Since becoming a Regional Minister, Mr Quartey has embarked on various activities as part of his ‘Let’s Make Accra Work’ agenda.
This agenda has led to various decongestion exercises across the city.
He has relocated onion traders at the Agbogbloshie market to Adjen Kotoku.
Henry Quartey has also announced plans to relocate traders at the Kokompe and Abossey Okai spare parts market.
These actions seem to have earned the Greater Accra Regional Minister a lot of praise.
Also hailing him, President Akufo-Addo said he is “happy that Ghanaians, especially in Accra, have seen the work Henry Quartey is doing.”
But for Mr Quartey, the commendations he has received so far are encouraging.
“We are doing this for God and country, I am not really expecting anything from it so every day I see it as a new day and a new challenge and we deal with it as it comes.
“We get more commendation from the public rather than those who criticize us so it motivates and strengthens us to continue and that is what we do every day,” he said.
