Dr Ekua Amoakoh’s path to medicine was not her own choice. It was decided for her before she finished secondary school.
She grew up inside Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. Her grandmother was the Director of Nursing there when she was born. The family lived in the hospital’s doctors’ flats. “That’s all I knew,” she told JoyNews’ PM Express with Emefa Adeti. Her parents took that familiarity as a sign her future lay in the medical field.
Dr Amoakoh resisted. “Initially I kicked against it, or I fought them. Even in medical school, up until about third year, I said, ‘I don’t want to do this. I told you I didn’t want to do this,’” she recalled. Despite entering medical school, she struggled to accept the career path chosen for her.
She described how her mother took charge of the process. “My mom just turns up one day, and then she just brings me the paper to sign. She filled it all out and just brought it to me. All I had to do was sign.” At the time, she was in Form Three at Holy Child School. She felt sidelined from decisions about her own future.
Dr Amoakoh said her parents saw medicine as a natural choice, given the environment she grew up in. But her interests diverged. “I always liked the nicer things in life. That’s why I’m a typical capitalist. You will not find me doing anything socialist,” she said. She was drawn to wealth creation and business opportunities. “I don’t actually see anything wrong with trying really hard to make some money. So I was always more attracted to that. And I was like, I grew up in the hospital. I’ve seen all these doctors. No, I want more money.”
The tension between her ambitions and her parents’ expectations created friction. Despite this, she acknowledges the value of her medical training. “I’m glad they insisted because even if it’s not something you are going to practice or something you are going to use, that whole process of training, I think it can forge any person into a formidable person,” she said.
She credits medical school with teaching discipline, resilience, and how to handle challenges. These qualities, she suggests, apply beyond medicine itself.
Dr Amoakoh is the spokesperson for NPP Flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and a member of the New Patriotic Party’s Health Committee. Her story reveals a personal side behind her public role.
She is the fourth of six children. For a long time, the family had five girls. Her younger sister, Ama, is close in age, and the two grew up almost like twins. “It was an army of girls,” she said. The family later welcomed a boy to complete the siblings.
Her upbringing in the hospital and the pressure to follow a medical career shaped her early life. Yet her personal ambitions leaned toward business and wealth, creating a complex relationship with her chosen profession.
Dr Amoakoh’s experience reflects how family and environment can direct the course of a life, even when the individual resists.
According to Joy Online.
