The JJ Rawlings Foundation, has announced the death of Mrs Valerie Anne Sackey, a former Director of the Castle Information Bureau during the administration of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings.
She served as the Director of the Castle information Bureau from 1982 to 1992 and of the Public Affairs Secretariat at the office of the late former President from 1992 to 2001.
A statement issued by the JJ Rawlings Foundation and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Mrs Sackey passed on 31st December 2023.
It said Mrs Sackey (nee Valerie Anne Lindoe) was born in 1935 in Accrington in the United Kingdom to Valentine Lindoe, Principal of the Accrington College of Art and Nancy Lindoe, an arts teacher in the college.
She met and married Mr Horace Walter Kofi Sackey at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where they were both studying and came to Ghana three days after independence in March 1957.
It noted that on arrival in Ghana, she
taught Geography at the Opoku Ware Secondary School and later joined the Department of Game and Wildlife and was posted to the Kumasi Zoo.
It said when her husband was appointed a Minister of State in the Progress Party Government led by Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia in 1969, she moved to Accra and continued to work with the Department of Game and Wildlife.
The statement said on her return to Kumasi following the fall of the Progress Party Government in 1972, Mrs Valerie Sackey was transferred to the Kumasi unit of the Department of Game and Wildlife and then to teaching at St Louis Secondary School in Kumasi.
It said during this period, she wrote on various topical issues for the Pioneer newspaper under the pen name of Yaa Asantewaa.
The statement said her direct and commonsensical approach to issues gained her a wide readership in a culture prone to using euphemisms to totter around uncomfortable facts of their socio-political life.
In one of these articles, she sharply criticized how the various le
aders of the PNDC were going round the country haranguing the people on radio and television and advised them to take a tape recorder and hear themselves speak.
It said this drew the attention of the Leader of the Revolution.’
It said former President Rawlings who secretly agreed with her expressed views and requested to meet her; adding that he was however, surprised to find that she was white.
The statement said after a few interactions with her, former President Rawlings extended an invitation to her to join his personal office staff and take charge of his speeches, interviews with local and foreign media and official Press Statements.
It said her schedule also included dealing with complaints and petitions to his office and responding to letters from the public.
It said with the assistance of Kwasi Opoku Acheampong, who was editor of the Pioneer in 1980-81, the Castle Information Bureau and the Public Affairs Secretariat became the most powerful and effective administrative organs of the Rawlings per
sonal administrative units.
It said after 2001, Mrs Valerie Sackey continued to work at the office of the late former President helping with his speeches, interviews, and other media related matters.
She was survived by her children; Michael Sackey (London) Joseph Sackey (Los Angeles) Anne Asantewaa Sackey (Accra) and seven grandchildren.
The statement said Mrs Sackey’s final funeral rites would be announced shortly.
Source: Ghana News Agency