Maame Efua Houadjeto: GTA CEO remembers Rawlings coup that nearly ended her father’s life, how she came to forgive

Marilyn Maame Efua Houadjeto is the CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA). She shared a painful story about her father's experience during a coup led by former President Jerry John Rawlings.

Her father was in charge of the military hospital in Tamale at that time. He was taken with another officer to a hill and rolled down. A kind military person intervened, preventing them from being shot.

Maame Efua said her father was grateful for his life after this incident. She and her siblings felt their father's pain and developed a dislike for Rawlings.

However, years later, she found it in her heart to forgive him. "Sometimes you just have to let the past go," she said. Surprisingly, she grew to love Rawlings over time.

She described him as humble because he wanted to apologize to her father. At one point, he offered her father a government position, but he declined, preferring medicine over politics. Maame Efua found it easy to forgive him after that.