By Richard DABLAH, Managing Partner, BOLABIRD LLC
Burna Boy’s “Bank On It” wouldn’t stop playing in my head.
Not on that grey August morning when the sky screamed over Ghana.
Not when the news broke that the helicopter carrying Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed had fallen from the heavens like a soul too heavy with purpose.
Not even now, as I write this.
The track — haunting, raw, resilient — became the score to my grief. It was more than melody; it was premonition .
“Oluwa me, I dey bank on it / I no fit die for nothing…”
The words circled me like prayer and prophecy. Because if there was one thing true about the late Minister, it was that he never moved aimlessly. He believed in systems , in data , in people , and in the unseen economy beneath our waste . If he walked into a room, he was already ten years ahead , thinking about how a used sachet water bag could help build a school block or how a scavenger could become a certified environmental worker.
He banked on ideas the world wasn’t ready for.
He saw plastic differently.
From Burden to Blueprint
In a nation suffocating under over 1.1 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, where less than 10% is recycled , most saw futility.
Dr. Murtala saw a broken loop begging for closure . He spoke of plastic not just as pollution, but as a mirror of our broken priorities — our habit of producing without accountability, consuming without conscience, and dumping without care.
He didn’t just write reports.
He crafted a national framework for a Circular Economy on Plastics , a document that—had he lived—would have become the guiding law for transforming waste into industry, employment, and climate action.
He called it “ economic patriotism.”
” My eye don see many tings / So I gat to keep my eyes on the prize…”
Those lines feel written for him. He fought hard.
The enemies weren’t always visible — sometimes it was apathy, bureaucracy, even sabotage. But his vision endured, because he believed that if we don’t close the plastic loop, it will choke us all.
Waste as Wealth, Not Wound
He championed *practical revolutions:
* Encouraging Nelplast Ghana, which turns waste plastic into pavement bricks
Promoting community-scale recycling hubs led by women and youth
Pushing for producer responsibility so the brands polluting our streets are held accountable
Dignifying the informal sector — the thousands of waste pickers who serve without recognition, protection, or policy
He called them ” frontline environmentalists “, insisting that any green transition that ignores them is cosmetic at best, exploitative at worst.
Where others saw rubbish, he saw resilience .
He banked on the invisible.
And they, in turn, banked on him.
His Legacy Cannot Be Buried
Dr. Murtala’s death must not become just another tragic footnote in the national news cycle. It must become a starting point. A spark.
Here’s what we must do — not to mourn him, but to finish what he began:
1. Pass the Circular Economy Law for Plastics
No delays. No dilutions. The draft he left behind must be passed within 90 days, mandating recycling targets, product design reforms, and strict penalties for non-compliance.
2. Create the National Recycling Innovation Fund
Finance the dreamers he believed in — engineers, artisans, startups turning plastic into value. Let Ghana become a lab for circular innovation.
3. Integrate Waste Workers into Formal Policy
Recognize, register, and remunerate Ghana’s waste pickers. Their labor keeps cities alive. Policy must catch up to their sacrifice.
4. Build Plastic-to-Purpose Infrastructure in Every District
Let every region have a pilot project: a plastic road, a school built from plastic bricks, a composting hub. Let his memory take physical form.
Final Notes from the Song
Burna Boy ends “ Bank On It ” with repetition that feels like both defiance and surrender:
“I dey pray, I dey pray, I dey pray, I dey pray…”
So do we.
We pray that his dream isn’t shelved with his body.
That plastic doesn’t go back to being “ somebody else’s problem.”
That this country learns to bank on what truly matters — on people like him, who think generations ahead.
He didn’t die for nothing.
He lived for something we all now must carry.
He saw plastic differently.
Now, we *must see ourselves differently
