Becoming ‘born again’ after working with NDC: The story of Dr. Joyce Aryee

The Founder and Leader of the Salt and Light Ministries Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee who has been appointed to chair the Apiate Support Fund, has made history as the only person to serve in almost every government since at least 1981 at her current age of 75.

The respected reverend who disappeared from public view for some time after serving in the P/NDC emerged as a church leader founding the Salt and Light Ministries and has since stayed away from the NDC, preferring to dilly dally with the NPP rather.

Dr. Aryee who currently serves on the Volta River Authority Board under President Akufo-Addo and receiving top state awards from President John Kufour has now been named chair of a five-member committee that has been tasked to manage and disburse the funds donated to Apiate with all necessary transparency.

The terms of reference of the committee are to raise sufficient funds and supervise its disbursement.

According to People, she was born to a Fante mother and a Ga father and is the second of four children. During her early years, Aryee lived with her family in Suntreso, Kumasi where she started her early years of education at Methodist Primary School and Methodist Middle School. She later went to Achimota School and graduated from the University of Ghana, Legon with a BA (Hons) in English.

Dr. Aryee has served in various private sector portfolios such as the Chamber of Mines but she is also a former secretary for various portfolios in the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) under Rawlings.

It will be recalled that in his book, Working with Rawlings, NDC stalwart and former Local Government Minister, Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi stated that:

“In 1988 the Ministry of Local Government was the “Siberia” of the Ministries. Nobody wanted to be appointed as the PNDC Secretary for Local Government, because appointment to the Ministry invariably saw the exit of the appointee from the government. Besides, it was a very “dry” Ministry which was very starved of resources, but I am not sure whether it was deliberate. Indeed, Ms. Joyce Aryee had left the PNDC system on account of her having been moved from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Local Government, a position she refused to take up.”

Dr. Joyce Aryee has refuted these claims she left the party after she was asked to work in another ministry.

“Kwamena knows that it is not true. I did not go and work in that ministry, but I did not leave the PNDC. He knows it, and I don’t know why he wrote it. I decided not to say anything about it, but it is not true,” she reacted then.

In 2015, her name was floated as a possible running mate to President John Mahama but she quickly refuted this too.

From 1982 to 1985 Aryee was Minister of Information for the PNDC. From 1985 to 1987 she was Minister of Education, and in 1987–88 Minister of Local Government. From 1988 to 2001 she was Minister of Democracy in the Office of Rawlings, and from 1993 to 2001 a Member of the NDC.