I’m in great pain; your death is hard to bear – Haruna Iddrisu mourns Dr. Omane Boamah

Tribute to late Defence Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah by Haruna Iddrisu, Education Minister.

With a heart crushed beneath the weight of grief, I stand before a world that commiserates in sadness, a nation that is grief-stricken, and the family of Dr. Edward Kofi Omane Boamah that can only be utterly shaken to the core, to pay this untimely tribute in my capacity as a colleague Cabinet Minister to the Minister for Defence of the Republic of Ghana until that tragic event of Wednesday, 6th August, 2025.

On that fateful day, since dubbed Ghana’s Black Wednesday, Dr. Omane Boamah, was onboard a Ghana Air Force Harbin Z-9 helicopter together with seven others, namely: Hon. Dr. Alhaji Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed–MP for Tamale Central and Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Alhaji Limuna Muniru–Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator, Dr Samuel Sarpong – Vice Chairman of our National Democratic Congress, Samuel Aboagye–former parliamentary candidate, and the flight crew of Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Manaen Twum Ampadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah.

The group was en route to Obuasi in the Ashanti Region for the launch of the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (rCOMSDEP) when their aircraft came down near Sikaman in the Adansi Akrofuom District in unconfirmed circumstances.

All eight gallant Ghanaians perished in what Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Julius Debrah, described as a national tragedy.

As a nation, we are grief-stricken and mourn as we do because never in the history of Ghana has such a fate befallen us, for high-ranking state officials of that stature to be lost as they were on that dark day.

We grieve but submit to the ways of the all-knowing Allah. Because as we faithfully hold, it is Allah’s will that what happened happened and happened as it did, gruesome and devastating as it is.

It is particularly so for Dr. Omane Boamah for whom this eulogy goes, because we know he was earlier not scheduled to be on that ill-fated flight. What a tragic loss! He was simply formidable, thoughtful, and strategic in all he did, a political thinker whose singular preoccupation was Mahama’s success, driven by his love for mother Ghana.

You were a founding member of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) with Kwesi Pratt, Bernard Mornah, and Kwesi Adu, among others.

From the night John Mahama conceded to the outcome of the 2016 elections to your untimely and tragic death in a helicopter crash, you served with unalloyed loyalty, dedication, and unwavering commitment. Ghana has lost an exemplary public servant and son.

You told me and Rita that you were not interested and not likely to accept an appointment into His Excellency John Dramani Mahama’s “Second Coming.”

You told me there were only two threats (to be shared in the future or at a later date) and God that could stand in the way of now President Mahama’s return, and you worked with your small team to make it happen.

It is an irony of fate that the Minister of Defence was bereft of the defence he deserved when it mattered most, and the medical doctor was left with no option for emergency care.

Sad and, as it were, unacceptable as it is, who are we, mere mortals, to question the script of the All-Powerful yet Ever Merciful God?

Even as we’ve been to the family house to commiserate with the inconsolable Rita and the rest of the family, my heartfelt condolences go to them and the children again.

Edward, your death is a terrible blow and very hard to bear, as you died in such a tragic way in the line of duty.

May your blood so painfully shed be the caustic cleaning agent that purifies our water bodies from the pollution of heavy metals and restores our degraded forests from the evil of illegal small-scale mining, otherwise known as “galamsey.”

Omane Boamah and I, besides being trusted and able lieutenants as Cabinet Ministers of His Excellency the President, John Dramani Mahama, share in common a number of notable roles since our respective student days.

In that sense and in reality, he was a younger brother to me, and a dear one at that. I am in great pain.

As I was from 1996 to 1997 in a memorable and epoch-making tenure, Edward was also President of the National Union of Ghana Students during his student days at the University of Ghana Medical School.

His efficiency and political acumen were honed from those times as he combined the demands of medical education with student politics, also serving as the Coordinating Secretary of the Federation of Ghana Medical Students Association.

Again, Omane received my handing-over notes in 2013 as he succeeded me as Minister of Communications during President Mahama’s first presidency.

At a time when that portfolio was combined with that of Information, he concurrently and ably served as the Spokesman for His Excellency the President.

Previously, he had served in Deputy Ministerial capacities for Environment, Science and Technology and also for Youth and Sports during the tenure of our late and beloved President John Evans Atta Mills.

At a time when youth were not being credited with much experience and capacity, Omane Boamah was part of the corpus of young and vibrant political activists whom President Mills purposefully sought to challenge with ministerial portfolios.

And by the grace of God and by virtue of our preparation and the support of Ghanaians high and low, we delivered and lived up to the high expectation of us.

Indeed, I was particularly tasked by the Venerable Ato Awhoi to recruit some of such student activists from NUGS to be appointed Ministers and Omane Boamah turned out to be one such vibrant and promising young politician.

Indeed, Omane Boamah has been described as the midwife who helped deliver NDC’s resounding 2024 electoral victory in his capacity as the party’s untiring Director of Elections and IT.

His brilliance and ability to quickly find solutions to problems and as a strategist inspired President John Mahama to entrust him with the high office of Defence Minister.

It is regrettable that you have been so cruelly snatched away from us just seven months into the victory you worked so hard to achieve, and while our arduous duty to reset Ghana has just begun.

Like a gallant warrior, you went on an important mission to help save our nation from the canker of “galamsey”.

As Defence Minister, you led the charge in a military helicopter to help battle Ghana’s current existential threat of illegal small-scale mining. You showed leadership.

But alas, and heart-wrenchingly so, it was a mission of no return. But as the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church—as your beloved Pope John’s Senior High School and Minor Seminary would have taught you—your work and the ultimate price you paid will never be forgotten.

I have lost a brother and a friend. Only you could calm me because you understood my irrepressible and optimistic temperament. You would tell them, “Leave Haruna to me.”

As we commit the mortal remains of my friend, brother, and colleague into the bosom of Mother Earth, I hark to the words of the immortal lines the Armed Forces call forth to bid farewell to their fallen heroes—the Binyon Verses: Omane, “[You] shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary [you], nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember [you].

Rest in perfect peace, Dr. Omane Boamah. The memory of you was to work for Mahama to succeed.

Yes, indeed, and you began to succeed in that resolve with our electoral victory.
Fare thee well. My brother and friend, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah—Minister for Defence of the Republic of Ghana: January 20, 2025, to August 6, 2025.