Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NAPO) says his transition from medicine to politics was driven by a desire to broaden the scope of his public service.
In an interview on JoyNews, the former Education Minister reflected on how his medical training equipped him to help individuals in critical situations—but politics, he noted, offers the opportunity to create broader and longer-lasting change.
“So being a doctor, you are serving one person at a time, and it could be very, very impactful for somebody who needs surgery, who is dying in agony, and you go in and you repair a strangled hernia or a rotten appendix or something, and you relieve his frustration.
“He sleeps well, and it brings a lot of joy to your heart and everything,” NAPO explained.
However, he was quick to acknowledge the limitations of the medical profession when compared to public office.
“But it’s limited,” he added, “because when you put it around being a politician with making decisions that are life changing for suites of the society, probably forever.”
For NAPO, serving the public has always been a guiding principle. “So this is just a public service ethos that was looking up,” he said, underscoring his long-held belief in using leadership as a tool for collective transformation.
