The late Dr Mrs Mary Grant had a moderating presence in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime of the 1980s and had a disarming effect on persons who had a lot of anger and bitterness toward the military government at the time, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, has said.

Dr Mrs Grant died on Sunday September 18 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, aged 88.

She was Deputy Secretary of Health for the PNDC in 1985 and also a Deputy Minister of Health when Ghana returned to constitutional rule in 1993. Dr Grant also served as Minister of Education and Culture.

Paying tribute to the first Wesley Girls’ High School alumna to become a medical doctor, Mr Baako said she was a “rreat lady, no doubt about that. She, just like Justice Annan (a former Speaker of Parliament), was brought into the PNDC orbit to exercise a certain moderating influence and it worked some magic, I would say,” adding that considering Dr Mrs Grant’s “personality” and “background”, “everything about her was something that could tame you – even a wild dog.”

These attributes, Mr Baako believed, stepped down a lot of resentment against the military junta, which ruled Ghana from 1981 until 1993.

“I think she played her role in stabilising this country within a period when there was so much upheaval and there was so much anger and emotion out there. I give her credit for that. She [was] a really good daughter of this country and a mother to some of us, in spite of one’s opposition to the PNDC which was uncompromising,” he said on Multi TV's Newsfile programme on Saturday September 24.

“Anytime one met her, she had such a moderating thing – you were tamed and I think nobody should be questioned [about] why she joined the PNDC. No, that’s immaterial.”

Mr Baako was certain that Dr Mrs Grant’s endearing demeanour had a “positive and beneficial effect” in Ghana’s return to democracy, adding: “I salute her and wish her well.”