JJ’s Grisly Selective Memory: His NDC Era Also Bought Votes

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“J. J. Rawlings has poured indignation at what he says is vote-buying by some

leading members of the NDC ahead of the national delegates congress to decide

who leads the party to the 2012 general elections. The practice, he said, was

not only alien but dangerous to the health of the party, which was founded on

the ideals of integrity and transparency” (Ghanaweb, April 5, 2011).

“J. J. Rawlings has again repeated his claim that the Presidency is using money

and intimidation tactics to threaten and intimidate members of the Nana Konadu

camp. The incidents of bribery and intimidation, he says, are alien to the NDC

and could lead to the party’s defeat in the 2012 General elections if President

Mills is elected on those grounds” (Ghanaweb May 17, 2011)

If Mills wins

JJ & Konadu will wield flowers

If Mills loses

JJ & Konadu will wield flowers

JJ & Konadu are building a case

Crafting a new nest of deceit

The case of Mills’ vote-buying

Their unraveling of illusion

Of grandeur of lost power

Of sycophantic adulation

Of subservient thieves

Of raucous chants of JJ JJ

JJ is lying to passive Ghanaians

NDC under JJ’s rule bought votes

They gave all their all to voters

DDT to Asante cocoa farmers

Easter celebration cards to Kwahus

Chamber-pots to Gas to use at the beach

Bicycles to impoverished “Northerners”

Yesterday’s chop-bar fufu to Krobos

Bleaching creams to Kotokoraba women

Bleaching creams to Kejetia women

Bleaching creams to Makola women

Fermented pito to Nima dwellers

Cutlasses to warring Konkombas

Machetes to warring Nanumbas

White singlets to Anlos

Palm-wine to Akyems

Sugar/milk to Fantes

Bibles to Akuapems

Ah! JJ and Konadu are at it

Crafting their owl narrative

Erecting copious caveats

Of Mills’ vote-buying stance

Of Mills’ intimidating stance

Foraging for a way out of trance

Out of an endless tunnel conceit

Endless tunnel of self-deceit

Building a straw man of conceit

In a kiln of a FIREMAN’s deceit

Poised for excusable defeat

JJ is wielding his amnesia

The disease of megalomaniacs

Ghanaians now know JJ

The sanctimonious JJ Rawlings

Rawlings is sadly unraveling

Like a dried Keta school boy

Like a dried fish in hot water

JJ is unscrambling the self

The Dzelukope chameleon

On a thin slippery precipice

The chameleon of many tricks

Kutu & co must be laughing

Demonized Liman is vindicated

“Ata Ayi” Kufour is a saint

Afflicted with amnesia

In a terrain of selective memory

His watershed of megalomania

JJ calls non-bastards bastards

Forgetting that he is THE bastard

JJ imputes murder to others

Forgetting that he is THE murderer

JJ calls others greedy bastards

Forgetting that he is THE greedy one

JJ accuses others of vote-buying

Forgetting that he bought THE votes

JJ claims vote-buying is alien

Alien to his who-born-dog NDC

But JJ and NDC bought votes

In 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008

From chiefs

From miners

From farmers

From masons

From the TUC

From fishermen

From prostitutes

From the NUGS

From the GNAT

From the GPRTU

From market women

JJ your probity

Your accountability

Your transparency

Have long departed

You wear the crown of lies

Of walking contradictions

JJ is lying again

JJ is like the vulture

After a bloody carcass meal

Cleans its bloody beak

Preens its carcass-ed feathers

Flutters its wings to the world

Flatters the sky with innocence

Yet smells of yesterday’s carcass

*Akadu N. 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