Haruna Iddrisu pays emotional tribute to Omane Boamah

Education Minister Hon. Haruna Iddrisu has delivered a deeply moving tribute to his late colleague, Defence Minister Dr. Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, following the August 6 military helicopter crash that claimed eight lives, including senior government officials.

Speaking in his capacity as a fellow Cabinet Minister, Hon. Iddrisu said he stood “with a heart crushed beneath the weight of grief” before “a nation that is grief-stricken” and a family “utterly shaken to the core” to honour the man he described as “formidable, thoughtful and strategic in all he did.”

He recounted the events of that “Black Wednesday,” when Dr. Omane Boamah, along with Hon. Dr. Alhaji Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Alhaji Limuna Muniru, Dr. Samuel Sarpong, Samuel Aboagye, Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Manaen Twum Ampadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah, were en route to Obuasi in the Ashanti Region for the launch of the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (rCOMSDEP).

Their Ghana Air Force Harbin Z-9 helicopter went down near Sikaman in the Adansi Akrofuom District, killing all on board.

“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,” he said, adding that while the loss was “gruesome and devastating,” it was “Allah’s will that what happened happened.”

Hon. Iddrisu described the tragedy as especially painful because Dr. Omane Boamah “was earlier not scheduled to be on that ill-fated flight.” He called him “a political thinker whose singular preoccupation was Mahama’s success driven by his love for mother Ghana,” recalling his role as a founding member of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) and his unwavering loyalty to President John Mahama from 2016 until his death.

“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,’” he recounted. “You told me there were only two threats… 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.”

Hon. Iddrisu reflected on the irony 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.” He extended condolences to Dr. Omane Boamah’s widow, Rita, and their children, and prayed that his “blood so painfully shed” would purify Ghana’s polluted water bodies and restore degraded forests.

The Education Minister also traced their shared history from their student days, recalling that Dr. Omane Boamah served as President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and as Coordinating Secretary of the Federation of Ghana Medical Students Association. He noted their overlapping careers, including Dr. Omane Boamah succeeding him as Minister of Communications in 2013, and his earlier roles as Deputy Minister for Environment, Science and Technology and Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports under the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

He credited Dr. Omane Boamah with being “the midwife who helped deliver NDC’s resounding 2024 electoral victory” in his role as Director of Elections and IT, adding that President Mahama entrusted him with the Defence Ministry because of his brilliance and problem-solving skills. “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,” he said.

Hon. Iddrisu praised Dr. Omane Boamah’s leadership in combating illegal small-scale mining, noting that he “went on an important mission… in a military helicopter” but it was “a mission of no return.” Drawing from the Binyon Verses, he concluded:

“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… 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.”

A state funeral for Dr. Boamah and the other victims was held today, Friday, August 15, at the Black Star Square in Accra. The solemn ceremony drew attendance from senior government officials, family members, the diplomatic community, military and security agencies, traditional leaders, political party representatives, and members of the general public who gathered to pay their final respects. Dr. Murtala Mohammed and Alhaji Limuna Muniru Mohammed had earlier been laid to rest on August 10 in accordance with Islamic traditions.