Fifty Million for Police & 50 Million Woyomed

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“A 50 million Euro loan facility has been secured by government for the Ghana Police Service to procure over 500 vehicles to enhance the work of service personnel. This was disclosed by Vice president John Dramani Mahama when he joined officers and men of the service at the annual Ghana Police Service West Africa Security Activities, WASSA, 2011 end of year party at the Police Headquarters in Accra” (Ghanaweb February 26, 2012).





Oh! Radioactive thieves


Pen-armed robbers


Take a loan of 50 million


Ah! Give away 50 million


Hmm! Ah! Free 50 million


To a crony


To a con artist


To Crook Woyome


The celebrated thief


The calibrated thief


Celebrated by his chiefs





Our archives of pain


Our wombs of pain


Like pregnant women


In painful living-death


In our hospitals


Death & deadly


Derelict hospitals

Decrepit hospitals


Decaying hospitals


Dilapidated hospitals


Our birthrights of corruption


Oh! Biographies of corruption


Our genealogies of corruption





Eh! Massa we dey meet paa


Ah! My Child we meet again





Eh! Massa now time hard


Ah! You no dey alone oh





Today tro tro be empty


Ah! People no get money





Oh! The police dey for road


Hmm! Police na so so bribes





Our national lunacy


Our deep lunacy


Herded by thieves

Educated thieves


Pen-armed robbers


Thieves of our hope


Thieves that kill hope





Massa see policeman shoes


Ha ha haa! Erosion get am





Massa that be wicked joke


The Police go improve now





Eh! Woyome dey for road


Police no like Woyome bribe





My child Mills take loan


Eh! Massa another loan





Hmm! Child yes loans


Another loan to buy cars


To clean Accra


To dig pit latrines


To buy chewing sticks

To drain Korle Lagoon


To buy Chinese chop sticks


To bring in foreign artisans


To buy foreign sand





Oh! This loan is a good one


This dey buys cars for police





Massa how much loan


Oh! 50 million Euros





We Ghanaians be funny paa


Foreign diplomats don laugh





Yes! Dey for laugh at us


And we for laugh at us too





Eh! Woyome get free 50 Million


Eh! We take loan of 50 million





Master, I go get down here


My Child! Another day

Oh! Our lost cause


Of celebrating thieves


Of lionizing crooks


Of reserving state burials


For pen-armed robbers


For killers of our dream


Ah! This painful circus


That lacerates our hearts


In the postcolony of fools


In a full circle circling fools


In a fool’s errand for fools





*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