By Solomon Mensah
Searching for loved ones
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| A Dead Baby Being Cuddled |
Dawn it was. My phone rang. I could
not pick. It was too early a Thursday morning, June 4, 2015. I heard the phone
ring far away in my slumber land.
Then… another call came through at
6:22am. It was my sister. When I checked the missed calls, they were all from
my family members in Sunyani.
“What might have happened back
home?” I asked myself.
I first called back my sister. While
I held the phone close to my left ear, I shivered and quivered. My voice
slivered in wait for the unknown news. Ironically, my family was also in a
state of shock… dying to hear my voice to ‘resuscitate’ them to normalcy.
“Boafour [Helper],” I called my
sister’s name.
“Kofi, how are you [she spoke in
Twi]?”
I responded in the affirmative that
I was well and that her call woke me up.
“I heard on news few minutes ago
that a lot of people have died in Accra due to last night’s rains and a fire
outbreak. Are you safe?” she asked.
“I am,” I replied.
We spoke about other family-related
issues briefly and hang up the call. But I had to call back my brothers, too. I
would call one of them so he tells the others that I was safe.
“I heard on Peace FM news [at 6am] that
Accra was mourning many deaths …” my brother said.
I told him I was fine. He prayed
this never happened anywhere in the world again and we ended the call.
On Wednesday, June 3, 2015 when I
left the house, my phone, power bank and other electrical gadgets were all off.
I had no power at home the previous day. I went to work and there was no power,
too. Hence, I could not listen to news in the evening.
This made the breaking news of the
flood and fire elude me since I would shave listened to radio till about 10pm before
I retired to bed. So, it was my family who broke the news to me!
I must say that the Kwame Nkrumah
Circle Ground Zero area is one of my normal routes in Accra, however, on that
day I was nowhere near that spot.
My landlord had returned from the
United Kingdom barely a week to the incident. When I woke up in a pair of boxer
shorts with my phone glued to my ear, he was also answering a number of calls.
He wore a grey pajamas with a big white towel around his neck.
“Oh I am fine. We thank God for our
lives but my heart goes out to the lost souls,” he said to the other person on
the phone.
From Berekum, in the Brong Ahafo
Region, a friend called me: “News just in is that the death toll now stands at 63,
70, 84, 100 …,” the friend recounted an information he had heard on a radio
station. It was as if the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) was announcing the
results of its Saturday National.
Per the death toll announcement, the
fears compounded as family and friends got worried deepening the calling and
searching for their loved ones.
On social media like Facebook,
family and friends recounted how they called and searched for their loved ones
or vice versa.
Isaac Promzy Opoku wrote: “A friend
called from South Korea asking ‘Promzy I hope you are not in Accra.’”
“I called my brother and asked ‘How
is the family? Are you safe?’ I was very uncomfortable because my brother
always drove home late passing through Circle, too,” wrote Zadok Kwame Gyesi.
“I sent a simple message: ‘Are you
safe?’ on WhatsApp and Facebook to all my people in Accra,” Kojo Kaps posted.
Missing persons, charred bodies
“I have seen not less than thirty
bodies all who have lost their lives,” Agya Kwabena –a reporter with United
Television (UTV) said. “Look on my left, a man has totally burnt into ashes. He
is not alone. There are a lot of people burnt.”
The UTV report went viral on social
media. The cameras showed human beings reduced to ashes. So sad!
Again, the calls were made and the
search for loved ones was intensified. On radio stations like Joy FM and Citi
FM, worried callers needed help to trace their family and friends. But, whereas
some families could reach and hear from their family and friends, at last, some
are still in limbo asking whether their loved ones are among the dead or the
living.
For those who got drowned by the
floods, identifying them after their retrieval was not really an issue. The
problem, however, lied in identifying one’s friend or family member who
suffered the havoc caused by the Goil Fuel Station explosion.
In one of the sprinter buses [Trotro]
that had stopped at the fuel station, to wait till the flood level reduced so
it could continue its journey, the driver, mate [conductor] and the passengers
onboard were all burnt.
In another bus’ front seat, a body
resembling that of a man sat but charred. Many others laid beside the buses in
either prostrate or on the supine… dead in an indescribable burns.
Agya Kwabena slowly shook his head,
mentioned his name to sign off his report, heaved a deep sigh and bent his head
towards his microphone [which his right hand held to his chest]. He had been
devastated seeing his fellow human beings bidding the world a goodbye in an
agonizing pain; the pain which has rendered them (victims) missing from their
families.
A DNA test to find missing persons?
After that dreadful Wednesday’s
twin disaster, there have been discussions upon discussions in the media,
offices, public transport, chop bars and drinking spots. In all these
discussions, putting the ritual political blame game aside, one pressing issue
stands out.
The issue as in the bereaved
families identifying their charred relatives. Some experts suggest that the way
to go is to perhaps run a DNA test on all the victims of the explosion.
A DNA test? Well, some skeptics say
it would be cumbersome since getting only the DNA of the dead without testing for
their living relatives will make the pairing process difficult.
However, as President John Dramani
Mahama said at the closing ceremony of the three-day national mourning for the
dead, a DNA test would be run on the charred bodies. I guess their living would be tested, too.
This will be but a form of
consolation to the bereaved families to at least get their dead relatives for a
final salute.
But what caused the twin disaster?
First was the floods which every
discerning Ghanaian knows that it has become an annual ritual that claims both
lives and properties. We build in water ways, throw rubbish in gutters, and
successive governments fail to take the needed steps to curb the ‘rain curse.’
Preliminary investigations say that
the Wednesday’s twin disaster, the Goil Fuel Station’s fire explosion, was caused
by a faulty underground fuel tank… situation that Goil could have for long
repaired to save the dear lives of the over 150 lives lost.
The way forward
“I say to you publicly and frankly:
The burden of suffering that must be borne,” wrote Richard Wright-author of
Black Power- to Kwame Nkrumah, “impose it upon one generation!”
Wright was not an inch from the
truth. His advice to Kwame Nkrumah was simple. He believed that for a country
like Ghana to succeed, sacrifices must be made to forestall a better living for
the unborn generation.
As we stand as Ghanaians, we must
sacrifice our selfish interest of building in water ways and throwing rubbish
in gutters. This will not only keep Ghana clean but say goodbye to the annual
floods.
This is where our leaders must be
bold to impose the burden of suffering (fine and imprisonment for disregarding the
laws) on us.
President John Mahama in his speech
at the Nkrumah Circle disaster scene said that “we [Ghanaians] shouldn’t
continue to be like the vulture.”
If we will not be like vultures,
then he (President Mahama) must “be merciful by being stern,” as Wright wrote
to Kwame Nkrumah.
Non-performing ministers among others
must be shown the exit or imprisoned without holding on to them in the name of
politics to the detriment of the public.
I cannot conclude this piece
without reiterating what Richard Wright said to Nkrumah: “If I lived under your
regime, I'd ask for this hardness, this coldness.”
Long live Ghana and may the
departed souls rest in perfect peace.
The writer is a freelance
journalist
Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/Otiberekese
Twitter: @Aniwaba