*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.
The Supreme Court, by a majority decision, has dismissed the conflict of interest case in which two deputy ministers of state are challenging the right of Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, NPP National Chairman, to acquire a state bungalow he occupied as minister of tourism and chief of staff. The court averred that Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey had the right under the constitution to purchase the bungalow in which he lived because the bungalow was bought in his capacity as a citizen and not a minister
(Abridged Ghanaweb May 22, 2012).
“The Forum for Transparency and Good Governance is calling for EOCO to investigate the circumstances in which Mr. Alex Segbefia, the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, purchased a building popularly called Ashanti House.. and how Mr. Alex Segbefia was able to acquire 5 million dollars to pay for this property. We also call for an investigation into the high spending at the office of the presidency and also suspicious electricity, water, non-existent staff payments and fund payments by Alex Segbefia from January 2012 to March 2012 to 56 individuals at the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council who cannot be traced or accounted
for” (Abridged from Ghanaweb, May 21, 2012).
Massa we meet again
Son, how the go dey go
Massa NDC Ghana sad paa
Son, Konongo Mills fail big time
Massa, NDC no fit jail NPP thieves
Son, you dey hear Jake story
Massa, Oh! I hear Jake bungalow
Son, Segbefia I hear buy mansion
Massa, they say for 5 million
Son, sorry we no fit buy some
Massa, you for join politics
Son, our politics dey for thieves
Massa, you for join Rawlings
Son, Ah! Son dem all be thieves
Massa, JJ dey love mmobrowa
Son, I say dem all be thieves oh
Massa, JJ no get house self
Son, JJ buy Nsawam Cannery
Massa, true dem all thief thief
Son, I for go; we go meet again
Pen-armed robbers
The educated thieves
Sanguinary vultures
In democratic nests
Vultures of our time
Blood-thirsty vultures
Atop the drenched tree
Dripping feces of decay
Africanizing thievery
Africanizing ineptitude
Pen-armed robbers
The educated elites
They are vultures
Sanguinary vultures
Preying in democratic nests
Vultures nesting in the bank vault
Vultures wielding poison in hospitals
Vultures atop the spire of the Church
Vultures preening tribalism in the Castle
Vultures with bloody beaks in Parliament
Vultures soaring with injustice in the Courts
Vultures with preying talons at the Ministries
Pen-armed robbers
The educated thieves
Worse than white predators
Worse than the imperialists
Ah! In the postcolony
In independent Ghana
Our own politicians
Have become predators
Preying on us
Pen-armed robbers
They make us poor
They steal from us
They take from us
They buy state property
All for pittance
They buy state lands
They buy state cars
They buy state tractors
They buy state bungalows
They buy state hotels
They buy state factories
They by state farms
All for pittance
The educated elites
The killers of the dream
The pen-armed robbers
The watershed of it all
Of all our problems
Dilapidated schools
Run-down hospitals
Decrepit electricity
Poisoned water
Polluted environment
Pot-holed roads of trap
Decaying infrastructure
Like Parliament House
Where putrefaction is gold
The educated elites
The pen-armed robbers
Worse than the white colonizers
Worse and the worst
Our leaders
Killers of the dream
In our postcolony
Our moment of excellence
In the postcolony
Is their monument of greed
*Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained
oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in Pennsylvania
with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college in Maryland. In
her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical”
poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com
**My poems and essays on Ghanaweb and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in
part for any academic or scholarly work without my written permission.
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