Blood on Uniforms. Silence on the Pulpit. And Conscience in Chains.
By J. A. Sarbah
Last night, unknown gunmen stormed Nalerigu SHS and executed two students in cold blood. Earlier same day, Hakim Kundima, a 17-year-old student of Bawku SHS, was dragged from his dormitory and murdered like a hunted animal.
The Bawku conflict has entered a terrifying new phase — where innocent children in school uniforms are now targets in a tribal bloodhunt.
And yet — the once-vocal clergy, the bold-faced CSOs, the campus professors, the peace think tanks, the media war-drums, and the moral megaphones of yesterday — are now mute. Ghana is bleeding in its North, and its soul is collapsing in Accra.
INDICTORY QUESTIONS:
- When did dormitories become execution zones?
What madness, what ethnic logic, what moral decay allows a child in school uniform to be gunned down at night — while the state and society shrug? - Where is the moral rage of yesterday’s peace preachers?
Where are the CSOs who once marched against vigilantism? Where are the clerics who declared, “every life is sacred” under Akufo-Addo? - What happened to Ghana’s famed civil conscience?
When did the deaths of children stop qualifying as national emergencies? Is it because Mahama is now president, or because the victims are not children of Accra? - When did campaign pledges become open death warrants?
Did Mahama not vow to “solve Bawku in 24 hours”? What intelligence backed that pledge? How many must die before that reckless promise is examined? - Is this not criminal negligence; when a President’s rhetoric inflames conflict, and his silence inflames it further?
On what moral ground was the pledge to create a Kusaug Region made — in a zone already fractured by ethnic tension? - Does silence not amount to complicity, when blood becomes routine, and no leader calls for restraint, reform, or justice?
Where is the Interfaith Council? Where is the Peace Council? Where are the chiefs? Or has conscience become transactional, only activated when the other side is in power? - Can we still call ourselves a nation — if students are murdered in school and the elite say nothing, write nothing, post nothing?
Where are the media think-pieces? The campus demonstrations? Or has civic outrage become a currency for political appointments? - Under Akuffo-Addo regime, an investigative (others controversially referred to as “media mercenary”) journalist was murdered by unknown assailants. That singular event, though not state enabled, nearly triggered the republic into an Arab-spring. Where are those voices today?
CIVIC CONCLUSION:
Bawku is no longer just a town in conflict. It is a graveyard of our national shame. The political hypocrisy is deafening. The moral cowardice is dangerous.
Had this happened under another government, hashtags would be flying. Editorials would be flaming. Clergy would be fasting.
But today, the children are buried in silence.
And the nation continues to burn slowly, shamefully, and selectively.
POSTSCRIPT: The Truth Transaction – how Ghana’s Conscience was bought and silenced
Let the 2021–2024 Hansard read:
All the loud voices that once wept over galamsey, inflation, and insecurity, weren’t guardians of conscience.
They were rent-seekers in national cloth; angry not from principle, but because Akufo-Addo wouldn’t settle them.
Today, under John Mahama, many have found their price.
Board appointments. Scholarships. Contracts. Consultancy gigs.
They’ve sold their tongues for honorariums and bar tabs.
This is why they cannot speak.
Because they are owned.
Ghana isn’t being failed by bad men.
It is being sold off by good men who cashed out their moral outrage — when the price was right
J. A. Sarbah
Civic Firebrand | PP Strategy Advocates | We speak when others sell silent.
