Kufour’s “Leadership Crisis:” A Three-Part Play In Rawlings’ World

“The former President of Ghana, John Kufuor, has blamed the

underdevelopment of the African region on the LEADERSHIP CRISIS

bedevilling the continent.”

(Ghanweb General News of Saturday, 7 November 2009)

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema Ph. D.; Post-Grad. Dipl.

PART 1: KUFOUR THE SAVIOUR OF RAWLINGS’ ABUSED GHANAIANS

You did some great things

Your eight-year democratic rule

Eclipsed Rawlings’ 20 year predatory rule

That sent Ghanaians to the precipice of hopelessness

In terms of greatness you come after Nkrumah

My hero and our hero of heroes

Nkrumah built Akosombo

And was derided by his detractors

You built Jubilee House

And Rawlings has barred Mills from using it

Simply because Rawlings demolished houses

He demolished houses instead of building them

He couldn’t build the Keta Wall in twenty years

Yet some people see him as the Trokosi tin-god

Kufour you used two years to build it

The more reason why Rawlings hate you

But don’t worry he even alienated his friends

His revolutionary friends and hangers-on

Remember that he beat up old Arkaah

But JJ’s followers think that it was just an embrace

We should think about why no Ghanaian protested

We have all become hypocritical stomach politicians

Nkrumah built Tema Motorway

You built Adenta-Akuapem Highway

Even Kutu Acheampong did very well

He initiated Anifa anifa pee pee Anifa Anifa

To make our roadways safer and globalized

Rawlings built highways to his bulging stomach

Gone are the days when he was emaciated

Yes, when he looked so thin at the Accra Stadium

That a gale of wind detonated his thin frame

Kufour introduced school feeding programs

JJ gave all Ghanaian children a gift of hunger

They called it Rawlings’ Chain

School children ate coconut and got the chain

School children ate raw gari and got the chain

School children became emaciated

But Rawlings’ kids fed on good food

They never went hungry or thirsty

Kufour established GETFUND

To fund University projects

Rawlings brought thugs to campuses

To disrupt education

To promote iliteracy

Kufour promoted free speech

Rawlings used feces to silence us

The culture of silence

Faces-bombed press houses

“Daily Graphic” became Rawlings’ delusional letters

“Ghanaian Times” became his murderous voice

GBC patented his infantile delusions of derangement

On GBC Rawlings described his daughter’s breast

That his daughter is using air force planes

To learn how to fly and that he was the teacher

PART 2: KUFOUR, THE KILLER OF THE DREAM – HIS “LEADERSHIP CRISIS”

Eh! Wofa Kufour! Eh! Wofa Kumfo

Now talks about LEADERSHIP CRISIS IN AFRICA

But he was the personification of it

You promoted corruption in so many ways

Edumadze was a thief who put up mansions

Kufour you knew about Edumadze’s antics

Kwamena Bartels used her daughter to steal

You Kufour heard about it

Anane used government funds

To fund his extra-marital affairs

You knew about how long Anane’s rod is

And you rewarded him with a reappointment

Wereko Brobbey swallowed up VRA

In his distended bulbous stomach

And you rewarded him with Ghana at 50

You rewarded yourself with bling bling

You rewarded yourself with dog chains

And called them national awards

It was the worst point of your regime

You attempted to give an award to Mills

When he was campaigning against the NPP

It was the worst sunset of your regime

You freed the clever thief Tsikata

Though he refused the freedom you granted

But wouldn’t stay at the Nsawam prison

Tsikata, the architect of kangaroo courts

That sent millions to prisons and their deaths

Ostensibly got sick and lived in Korlebu

As a sickened clever thieving intellectual

One of the generations of Socialist thieves

Your unemployed son Chief Kufour

Has become the owner of Hotel Kufour

The most expensive Hotel in Ghana

These missteps are a CRISIS IN LEADERSHIP

PART 3: KUFOUR IN OUR KALEODOSCOPIC HISTORY

You had LEADERSHIP CRISIS

But history will be kinder to you

More than your kindness to Rawlings

Who is pulling rotten hairs from his nose

Your eminent place with Nkrumah my hero

Yes, our hero of all heroes is assured

History will be kinder to you

As Ghanaians have been to Nkrumah

Your Jubilee House alone is a kind monument

That will restore your voice and deeds to history

Let your detractors dance in their rottenness

Let Rawlings dance his dance of dunce-ing

It is his past that has put a pistol to his head

It is his gripping gruesome past that is passing by

*Akadu N. Mensema is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained

oral historian cum sociologist and a Professor in the USA.

She writes what critics have called “populist

hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at

akadumensema@yahoo.com