Brong Ahafo University: NDC’s Ploy

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The NDC government has handed over the Brong Ahafo University of Energy and Natural

Resource Management to the Vice Chancellor at a ceremony held at the premises of the

university on Thursday. This ostensibly means that academic work can commence in

earnest on the university. The University of Energy and Natural Resource Management

is one of two universities that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to

establish to complement the efforts of the public universities in the country. The

other university, known as the University of Health and Allied Sciences is being

established in the Volta Region” (Ghanaweb, May 25, 2012).

Ah! Education for what

When there are no facilities

When there are no buildings

When there are no teachers

When there are laboratories

When there are classrooms

When there are no libraries

Ah! Education for what

Hmm! For fatigued propaganda

Ah! Ghanaians held hostage

To grandiose schemes

To fetishization of greed

To patented chaos

Ah! Our seductive narratives

Of incompetence

Of vacuous speeches

Ah! Historicizing incompetence

Ah! NDC propaganda

Yes, all schools have beginnings

But schools are inspired by policy

Not perspired from propaganda

The NDC give it all

They gave Woyome 52 Million

The NDC give it all

They give one pesewa to education

The Great University of BA

The university is a paradise

Ah! The Old School of Forestry

Built by Kwame Nkrumah

Thanks to our gods

The P/NDC sold all

Sold factories

Sold hotels

Sold lands

Sold farms

Thanks to our gods

The NDC didn’t sell schools

They didn’t sell Nkrumah’s schools

Ah! BA has a university

Ah! Nkrumah’s School of Forestry

Ah! The Brong Ahafo University

The habit of a long lost forest

Now school of Energy

With a forlorn laboratory

Now school of Natural Resources

With a galamsey curricula

Ah! The NDC has done it again

Aging buildings as a new school

Aging desks into academic platform

Ah! All dilapidated in poise

Peeling-over paint that begs the sun

Windows that summon the wind

Corridors with footprints of neglect

Flowers potted in anemic glue

Ah! Education for what

When there are no facilities

When there are no buildings

When there are no teachers

When there are laboratories

When there are no classrooms

When there are no libraries

Ah! Education for what

Hmm! For fatigued propaganda

Ah! Ghanaians held hostage

To grandiose schemes

To fetishization of greed

To patented chaos

Ah! Our seductive narratives

Of incompetence

Of vacuous speeches

Ah! Historicizing incompetence

*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.