Cocoa Sacks and Cameras: When Dignity Died with the Dead

In the annals of national tragedy, August 6th, 2025, will be remembered not only for the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of eight distinguished sons of Ghana, but for something far more disgraceful the stripping away of their dignity in death.

Yes, a nation mourns. Yes, grief hangs thick in the air. But how did we become so numb to reverence, so desensitised to human worth, that we thought it appropriate, no, necessary to broadcast their remains live, and even more horrifying, to show their noble bodies shoved into cocoa sacks?

Cocoa sacks? For the defenders of the realm? For the leaders, the trailblazers, the men who once wore the nation’s badge with pride?

This is not only a tragedy of aircraft or altitude, but of attitude.

The accident was sudden. The heartbreak, unimaginable. The silence of their departure, deafening.

But what followed was even more deafening; the clatter of camera shutters, the relentless clicking of phones, the livestreams of agony, the footage of bodies, as though dignity died with them.

And then came the sacks. Not a stretcher. Not a body bag. Cocoa sacks. The kind used to carry beans to market. They became the final garment for men who had served this country.

What kind of nation does that to its heroes?

What message do we send to the living who wear the uniform today? That your reward in death is a cocoa sack and a trending hashtag?

There is something deeply broken in our national conscience when we confuse sensationalism for journalism. When “being first” becomes more important than being respectful. When we shove microphones in the faces of grieving families and zoom in on trauma for ratings.

What happened today was not coverage. It was vulturism a media feeding frenzy on the fresh corpse of dignity.

Where is the public decency? The editorial gatekeeping? The silent voice that says, “No, not this. Not here. Not now”?

The media must return to a place of restraint and reverence. And if media houses will not self-regulate, then perhaps we the people must begin to hold them accountable boycott, protest, unsubscribe, disengage until dignity is restored.

Yes, the media failed. But so did we.

The citizen who filmed.

The soldier who recorded.

The crowd that gathered to gawk.

The netizen who retweeted.

For the soldier who saw his superiors mangled and reached for his phone instead of saluting. He must be relieved of duty. Not out of vengeance, but out of the sacred truth that you do not record your commander’s final shame. You stand still. You bow. You honour.

Let us mourn them properly. Let us remember them with heads bowed, not heads scrolling. Let this be the day we bury not just bodies, but also our carelessness, our craving for spectacle, and our disregard for the sacred.

Because in the end, it is not only how a man lives that matters.

It is how we let him leave.

The sufferers of this fate are:
Dr. Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Minister for Defence

Hon. Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation and Member of Parliament for Tamale Central

Alhaji Muniru Mohammed Limuna, Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator

Dr. Samuel Sarpong, Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress

Samuel Aboagye, Former Parliamentary Candidate

Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Air Force crew

Flying Officer Manaen Twum Ampadu, Air Force crew

Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah, Air Force crew

These were not just names; they were the backbone of our institutions, guardians of progress, champions of service.

And yet, this was their farewell?

And Ghana, today, we failed them.