Baba Sadiq motivated me to vie for MP position – Okraku-Mantey

The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey has revealed how creative entrepreneur Baba Sadiq, inspired his decision to contest for a parliamentary seat at Ayensuano.

Mark said in an interview on Daybreak Hitz that, Baba who is the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Okaikoi Central constituency once approached him in his office and sold the idea to him.

“Once upon a time I was sitting up here [at The Multimedia Group]. I was not a minister oo. And then our own Sadiq came to ask if it was true that I came from Ayensuano. Sadiq’s father used to be a chairman of NPP at Ayensuano. Ask him, Sadiq’s father speaks Akuapem more than me,” he told Andy Dosty on Hitz FM.

He said when Sadiq’s father even gave him [Mark] some guidelines regarding election.

“So it was Sadiq who actually initiated this whole thing. That is why I changed my vote from East Legon to Ayensuano. I did that before 2020 elections. So that was why Honourable OB Amoah asked that question [during my vetting]. he got the clue that I had changed my vote from East Legon to Ayensuano,” he noted.

Contrary to criticism by some creative industry people that his quest for the Member of Parliament position and the time he spent on that, swayed his attention from his job as Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, he said it was rather for the good of the arts industry.

According to him, it was easier for Members of Parliament to get ministerial appointment; which means if he won the seat, that could give him an added advantage when there was any consideration for a ministerial appointment.

His comment comes on the back of suggestions that the creative industry will do better if people from the sector are made substantive ministers and not deputies.

Okraku Mantey lost the parliamentary primaries of the New Patriotic Party to businesswoman Ida Adjoa Asiedu in 2023.