The Member of Parliament for Ada and Deputy Majority Whip, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe, has firmly stated that she prefers her current role in parliamentary leadership over holding a ministerial position, despite calls from some quarters questioning why she is not a minister.

Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Tuesday, September 9, the seasoned legislator explained that her decision was intentional and based on her understanding of influence and responsibility within the structure of government.

“When people start crying, ‘Why didn’t they make you a minister?’ I laugh, because they don’t understand the two,” she said. “When you are a leader in the House, all the MP-ministers, when they enter the chamber, are under you.”

Cudjoe emphasised the value of her front-bench leadership role in Parliament, noting that it affords her more legislative authority and oversight than a ministerial post.

“I don’t know why they say I should leave the front bench and go and be a minister and come and sit behind a leader in the chamber. Let me be in the front,” she said. “All the ministers that come to the chamber — if I turn to them and say I need this, I get it done.”

Having previously served as a minister, she noted that her decision not to return to the executive arm was deliberate. “I have been a minister before,” she said. “Unless he [President] Mahama says, ‘With your specialties, I’ve seen you can do this for me,’ but not to just ask me, ‘Do you want it?’ I will say no.”

Cudjoe revealed that she had declined several offers and made her intentions clear from the onset of her party’s victory.

“I was asked several times, but I said no. I told my party. I told my leadership. When we won power, all of them said they wanted to be ministers. I told them I want to be a leader.”