- “We almost got lynched in Kumasi. It wasn’t easy. I think even when we went to Tamale, we had to have some protection from the military…so things were difficult.”
Joyce Aryee, a former minister of information during the rule of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), says she and her colleague ministers were nearly lynched in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region after going there to explain a government policy.
“We almost got lynched in Kumasi. It wasn’t easy. I think even when we went to Tamale, we had to have some protection from the military … so things were difficult.”
Auntie Joyce, as she is popularly called, was speaking with Nana Yaa Mensah on Sunday Night on Asaase Radio.
She said life during the PNDC government was tough, adding: “I mean, how do you deal with a situation where you devalued your currency by more than 1,000%? It was a very difficult time.”
Rawlings’s persistence
Aryee said Rawlings made repeated requests to her to serve in his PNDC government.
“He [Rawlings] was persistent. I guess, knowing me from Achimota [School, he thought] there was something I could give back to society. That’s the way I’ll put it.
“So, after the third time, I sort of said: ‘Look, this is also your country and if anything good happens in the country you are as much a beneficiary as anybody else. And since you’ve been called to serve in an area where you have some strength, why not do it?
“So that’s how I got involved.”
Watch the full interview with Joyce Aryee below:
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
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