Since the unfortunate fatal accident of the helicopter crash which claimed the lives of eight budding, exuberant and high-flying Ghanaians, we have come to terms with our human nature and the need to live together as a people without distinction. Indeed, we have not only been sober and decorous in how we speak and relate to each other, but we have also realised that political party affiliation is not enough to define us as a people.
Therefore, we need to come together to demonstrate respect, understanding and appreciation that belonging to whatever grouping or association is only a matter of choice and alternatives, but never about who is superior or inferior, nor who is best or worst in the choices or positions they take on all matters of human concerns.
We have been accommodating and civil to each other, recognising our vulnerability as mortal beings.
We have not wasted any moment in admonishing everybody about how we should respond to the tragedy, demanding respect and circumspection, admitting that what happened could have happened to anyone.
So, we have admitted that as humans, we face certain basic happenings that point to the fact that there are no human beings who are not faced with the possibility of doing good or evil and thus, there is nothing firm that grouping or membership in human society is immune to any of the human foibles.
Posture
That is why in discussing any matter, we should not present a posture that one group of people have a monopoly over good and competence, whilst other groups are restricted to evil and crass incompetence.
No group is composed completely of infantile minds, whilst another group is made up solely of capable, solid and intelligent dispositions.
Prayer
My prayer is that once we have come to this realisation, we would reflect the new dawn in all matters of national and individual significance, whether in politics, religion, tradition or ethnicity, customs and mores.
Mahatma Gandhi has noted and advised that if a people practice a certain culture, norm or more, no matter how evil or despicable another group sees it, it must never be considered as completely useless, since it has value for those who practice it.
We must respect group norms and mores and begin to understand and appreciate them before we pass judgment and condemn them.
We must be sensitive to the emotions, sensitivities and sensibilities of others before we speak derogatorily about what they cherish.
This new awakening is what we hope and pray to see in public discourse, whether on the floor of Parliament, at conferences and on the electronic or in the print media, to demonstrate that we are all Ghanaians and have a common and collective stake in the future of our country.
Whatever it is, and to illustrate the reality, for example, Ghanaians who eat snails or dogs are no better or worse than those who eat snakes.
The only exception is that if you want to reach out to people who eat snake with the message of Jesus Christ about parents who care for their children or otherwise, in order not to scorn or abuse their sensibilities, you do not refer to biblical statements of fish and snake, but you have to find relevant alternative examples, since to them snake does not connote or denote evil.
Oath
Many have suggested that we should make the unprecedented fatality our Ntamkesee or Great Oath, that never again should we treat the menace of illegal mining, destruction of our water bodies and other natural resources with kids’ gloves.
The combined effect of the destruction of tree cover and water bodies is making the environment unmanageable, unmindful of the maxim that when the last tree dies, the last man will also die. We must not treat the dastardly accident as usual, ehuru a ebedwo or fama Nyame.
And whilst we are brooding, some have brought oil to fire. Is it that as William Shakespeare points out in King Lear, "The gods are just and of our evil ways make instruments to plague us", or that "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport"?
The question of prophecy has dysfunctionally turned our distress into what the late General Arnold Quainoo of the Ghana Armed Forces described as "fire, not an inferno, not a conflagration" in response to a lecture by Prof. Albert Adu Boahen describing Ghana as engulfed and enmeshed in the "culture of silence".
Rev. Stephen Wengham is at all material times one of the most revered, admired and respected men of God in this country.
Whether it is unclear communication or misunderstanding, his wading into the accident and certain pronouncements have caused many Ghanaians to link him to false prophets.
There is so much that could be read from his comments and it is good that we allow matters to rest. For as Proverbs 17:28 puts it, "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent and discerning if he holds his tongue".
Prof. Wole Soyinka maintains that "post mortem is for quacks and chroniclers who fail at divination".
What it means is that men of God must, if they actually speak for God, and want to be taken serious by our people, at all times when they receive any revelation, address these to the right places through appropriate channels, such that we should not be speaking about the past, that which cannot be restored, because it is noted that "God reveals to redeem".
The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation did extremely well in calling for circumspection about the kind of photographs churned out on social media, but the way things were managed created room for that.
As our people say, the one who brought rotten meat or fish (momone) into the house invited the flies that invade the place where the smell is centred.
Mend
The August 6, 2025, Sikakrom accident is said to be unprecedented not because of the number of casualties, but more because of the high-profile political office holders involved.
That is why we must use it to mend fences at the point that we experience extreme bitterness and divisiveness in tearing ourselves apart through unwholesome language and intolerance, where even matters of fact could be manipulated to create angels and demons depending on which side of the political divide we stand.
Once we know that we are all mortals and prone to accidents, including fatalities that defy political party affiliation, we have to be humble and circumspect in how we talk in public.
No matter how irritated we become through the action of others who do not agree with us, and no matter how we see our group as more intelligent and better managers of national resources, we remain mortal.
We must, thus, agree with the psalmist in Psalm 34:12 that "whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies".
