Chief Executive Officer of GTA, Maame Efua Houadjeto
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Maame Efua Houadjeto, has recounted the trauma her father endured during a coup d’état staged by the late former president, Jerry John Rawlings.
In an interview with JoyPrime on April 2, 2025, Maame Efua shared the harrowing incident involving her father and some military officers during the coup, where he was nearly killed.
She explained that during the coup, her father was tied up with another medical doctor, and both were thrown over a hill
“My parents will sing differently, but I just had to understand what came with it. We were in Tamale, and he was he charge of the military hospital during the coup; it was the other ranks that traumatised the senior officers. With him, that was tough because he was bundled with another doctor and was taken to this hill in Tamale, and got them rolling down the hill.
Maame Efua Houadjeto added, “My father couldn’t stop thanking God because he said they were about shooting and somebody spared their lives. As children, even though we felt their pain, it wasn’t like how they went through,” she said.
When asked if she had forgiven the late former president, Maame Efua confirmed that she had, and added that she even grew to like him.
“Sometimes you just have to let the past go. Funny enough, former President Rawlings was one of my favourite people. I somehow forgave him and grew to love him. He is also a very humble person because he kept on saying he needed to see my father and apologised to him.
“There was he gave my father the opportunity to serve in government, but my father said he is a medical officer and doesn’t want to do politics. It was easy to forgive him,” she added.
Meanwhile, watch GhanaWeb’s tour of Fort Victoria and the Cape Coast Lighthouse below:
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