Otiko Afisah Djaba, who was fired as minister of gender at the end of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration’s first term, has said she doesn’t regret declining an ambassadorial position in 2018.
The former New Patriotic Party National Women’s Organizer said that declining the president’s offer to be posted to Italy and quitting politics was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She attributed her decision to turn down the ambassadorial position and retire from politics to the necessity to spend enough time with her children, whom she had long ignored.
She said on the May 2 episode of the GTV Breakfast Show that her four children had to deal with an absent mother for years due to her job in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and later full-time party and national politics.
“I’d worked for sixteen years, I had four children, I was waking up at 2 am, 5 am to go to work all over the country. I became an absentee mother, I had the right to spend time with my children.”
Asked about her rejection of the 2018 job, she responded: “It is the best thing that ever happened to me, for me to decline going to Italy and the best thing that ever happened to me to come out of development to go into politics,” she stressed.
Prior to entering politics, she worked in 98 communities, making it impossible for her to accomplish everything she had just mentioned. As a result, she expressed her gratitude to the NPP, saying, “I am very grateful to my party.”
In addition to needing to care for her children, Otiko Djaba stated that her bedridden ex-husband was another reason why she made the decision to step away from active politics.
She once ran for the NPP’s Bole Bamboi seat but lost to John Dramani Mahama, who would subsequently hold the offices of vice president and president of the republic.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
