Death Shall Come When It Will

Last Sunday evening the nation did not hear good news. This is how news about death is reported in Akan. It is a decent rendition of what we found ourselves in when the disturbing Kintampo Waterfall story broke on Sunday.

A story about 20 young persons – students in a senior high school – dying instantly after a tree uprooted by a windstorm trapped them is one which should break the heart of a nation, and it did.

Although a national day of mourning has not been declared, the occurrence has touched our hearts and pushed us to mourn as a people with one destiny.

We can imagine the extra pain families of the bereaved are enduring at this time. At the time that they heard the news about the tragedy the confusion that enveloped them was beyond description.

Then eventually, the moment of truth dawned on them when names of the deceased students were relayed to them. As for coming face-to-face with the remains of their sons and daughters, those were moments we should all pray not to ever witness.

Heartbreaking, shattering and enough to kill those with heart conditions, are some of the descriptions of the realities of the scene staring the parents when they saw the mortal remains of their sons and daughters in the morgue.

They left for school but unknown to their parents, it was the last time they would set eyes on them alive. This life my compatriots, hmm!

Their deaths were occasioned by a force majeure and therefore beyond our comprehension, try as we can to determine why it happened. We are but mortals, mere creatures of the Creator so fragile that tragedies of the one under review can define our last moments in the ephemeral world.

We are pained by the death of these young persons, in whom so much investment by both the state and their parents has gone into preparing for their future leadership roles.  Consider how like the lights of candles, they have been put off by wind.

We join the parents, the headmaster and his staff, including the friends of the deceased at the Wenchi Senior High School, in grieving the death of the 20 students. We salute Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia for joining his compatriots in commiserating with the bereaved families and giving comfort to the pained.

His visit and the one he paid to the scene of the accident, including the pouring of grief by other Ghanaians, have gone a long way in assuring the bereaved families that they are not alone in their melancholic moments.

Vice President said it all when he interacted with the students of the Wenchi Senior High School and told them that there are certain happenings in life which are beyond our comprehension.

Unfortunately, a certain Kintampo chief, instead of joining his compatriots in mourning the dead and giving comfort to the bereaved families, is rather basking in partisan politics in a rather crude manner.

Such chiefs are unworthy of the deference persons holding their positions deserve. We are mourning and would simply ignore his political ranting as he reminisces the days of cheap money coming to him from the seat of government. No more so as a new dawn of civility in governance is in place in Ghana, courtesy the demand of most Ghanaians.