JJ the Fireman Wants a New Home to Burn

“GREEDY BASTARD:” JJ the Fireman Wants a New Home to Burn

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“Touching on the burnt Ridge residence, Mr Agyenim-Boateng said the former First

Family wanted the place constructed in a ‘certain way and by a particular

contractor’, but the NDC is still waiting for the “drawings from the Rawlingses

for works to proceed on it”(Abridged from Joy FM Online July 8, 2010).

“Mr. John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information said: ‘the NDC's attention has

been drawn to accommodation concerns raised by the Konadu Rawlings.’ It said the

NDC had been in constant touch with the Ex President's team who had indicated a

preference for reconstruction of the burnt Ridge premises” (Abridged from

Ghanaweb, July 9, 2010).

“The residents [of Adjiriganor-East Legon] are at a lost (sic) as to why Mrs.

Rawlings would be looking for a house to rent whilst her husband is practically

one of their high-profile neighbors. The Adjiriganor inhabitants, particularly

those in the gated NTHC Estates, relish how Mr. Rawlings’ presence in the area

alone was enough to ensure regular water supply after years of being milked dry

by water tank drivers (Abridged from Ghanaweb July 10,2010)

JJ Rawlings & Yaa Konadu

Today’s homeless millionaires

Liman was never a millionaire

But JJ made Liman homeless

The Rawlingses have it all

The best free food & wine

While we go hungry, thirsty

Expensive designer clothes

While we can’t buy used clothes

Education of their kids abroad

While we can’t pay local fees

JJ the homeless millionaire vulture

Fears to claim his Adjirigano house

Haunted by his past misdeeds

Of killing those who had homes

Those with 50,000-cedi loans

JJ deprived families of their homes

Hunted by his acidic hypocrisy

Of foaming rhetoric of populism

JJ fears to say that he has palaces

The past has caught up with JJ

His one man one toilet philosophy

Turned out to be 100 toilets for JJ

JJ has been full of deadly lies

Today he is scratching his head

And Ghanaians have seen his lice

The Obonsam Fireman of Ridge

JJ he who “born” all rabid dogs

Rabid dogs that fear fire

Fear the fire of probity

Fire of transparency

JJ he who gets all his wealth

From anonymous friends

JJ whose rabid dogs fear fire

Yet roam freely in fire

In the Ridge fire of deceit

Dogs, cars, jewelry, clothes

The Obonsam Fireman saved all

The chief fireman of Ridge

Dogs of chaos that escape fire

Dogs choreographing anti-Millsisms

Now wants a new palatial house

In his Obonsam Fireman’s fireplace

To be built by his own contractor

JJ has had decades of freeloading

As he fights for poor people

And he is still asking for more

The real GREEDY BASTARD

The killer of our dreams

The validated bastard of chaos

Now we know him very well

The revolutionary of our time

Happens to be con man

JJ Rawlings in 1979

Lean and hungry-looking

Dried like Keta school boys

In the harmattan season

JJ Rawlings post-1979

Fat like a Korle-Bu vulture

Full of deadly poison

Killed to enrich himself

The warrior of the poor

Only fights for himself

JJ the deceitful Obonsam Fireman

Has burnt down Nkrumah

Busia, Acheampong, Liman,

Arkaah, Kufour, Mills

Has burnt down everyone

JJ Rawlings & Konadu

Dropped from poverty hell

Preached revolution of austerity

Ghanaians wore Rawlings’ chains

Famined, dehydrated, anemic

JJ’s prescription of the staple diet

Of gari, cassava, coconut

But JJ’s body ballooned in size

Freeloading from Ghanaians

Like a vulture on a stately carcass

Spineless Atta Mills

JJ’s pet of a SLOW” man

Has doubled his snail-pace

To build a palace for JJ

In JJ’s fireplace at Ridge

The “GREEDY BASTARD”

When the North lacks schools

Where classes are held under trees

The “GREEDY BASTARD”

The killer of our dreams

**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