**By Akadu N. Mensema Ph. D.; Post-Grad. Dipl.
PART 1: SHALLOW PROFS
Professor banza eh!
Yes Sir/Madam, I know my ABCD!
Yes Sir/Madam, I have my ABCD!
But Prof. Banza can you soar above EFGH?
Our emerging half-baked professors
Wearing bogus titles of professorship
Strutting as giants of mushroom academies
Titles plucked from the eaves of the academy
Titles unwarranted by a dearth of scholarship
Titles unwarranted by a dearth of teaching
Titles unwarranted by a dearth of service
The killers of the dream
And of the realities of knowledge
They are Korle Lagoon mosquitoes
Hostile mosquitoes in our ears
Professing noise as knowledge
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Banza Professors eh!
Who have nothing to profess about
Who can’t ask new questions
But have affinity with decaying ideas
Who can’t do fruitful research
Who have not published in any reputable journal
Who have not presented conference papers
Who don’t know how to face students
Who may have self-published 20 pamphlets
Pamphlets they alone understand
Hollow professors
Who pluck titles from the eaves of the academy
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Banza Professors eh!
They are among the THIEVES of our time
Who can’t read their own names
But are able to craft schemes to steal from the state
Who can’t read their own Ph. D. dissertations
But can craft ideas to steal from the state
And who are all over the airwaves
Mounting tempestuous political platforms
Like rabid dogs in heat
They are like Korle Lagoon mosquitoes
Hostile mosquitoes in our ears
Professing noise as knowledge
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PART 2: ROLL CALL: LUMINARY PROFS
Before our academic sunset
We had cultivated well-deserved professorship
Professors who studied the horizon
And minted kaleidoscopic knowledge
Professor George Benneh
Professor Francis Agbodeka
Professor A. Adu Boahen
Professor Kwame Arhin
Professor Ama Atta Aidoo
Professor A.A. Kwapong
Professor K. Wiredu
Professor G.K. Nukunya
Professor Christine Oppong
Professor F.K. A. Allotey
These and numerous others
Who published peer-reviewed articles
Who published celebrated magnum opus
Who published timeless books
Who gained global distinction
Known by their first names around the globe
They were the intellectuals before our sunset
They made Ghanaians proud
They are the signposts to knowledge
They are road-maps to progress
But they are not Korle Lagoon mosquitoes
That breed in filthy academies
The hollow intellectuals
The shallow intellectuals
Those who shout the loudest
Those who spit the crudest
Even when their tongues are trapped
By their decaying uncut intellectual teeth
They are like Korle Lagoon mosquitoes
Hostile mosquitoes in our ears
Professing noise as knowledge
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**Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema 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
