*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD
**President John Mahama, please, stop your thank you funeral-defined touring
cacophony and its misuse of national resources. It is time to settle down to the
management of the state! If you have chosen not to investigate the circumstances
surrounding Atta Mills’ death, don’t tell us that you are touring Ghana to thank
Ghanaians for their contributions to the state burial of Mills. You already did that
via national TV broadcast. You are touring for a self-serving reason: campaign for
the votes of benighted and impoverished Ghanaians. You are fooling Ghanaians by
thanking them for being silent accomplices in the death of Mills, their elected
president, who died in the bloody slave Castle, was quietly smuggled out in an SUV
without a motorcade, and unaccompanied by any official Aide to the Maternity Ward of
37 Military Hospital. It is only in wretched Ghana where mediocrity is a celebrated
science that this could happen. Yes, we knew that Mills was
sick, but the NDC hawks told us that Mills was as fit as a Castle lizard and that
that he could jog like lizards on the Castle walls. Death is inevitable, but the
unusual circumstances of the death of Mills and how it was handled by the NDC do
not warrant your hypocritical and self-absorbed “Thank You Tours.”
President Mahama you sound just like some of our past leaders who perceived and
exploited Ghanaians for being a bunch of passive benighted people willing to chorus
“eny3 hwee,” “saa na ete,” “fama Nyame,” “Gyae na enka,” Abi, make you leave them,”
Na so eday oh, etc. Unless we Ghanaians change our culture of reticence which allows
our leaders to thank us for taking us for silent fools, we shall forever remain in
the backwater of the world as dependent and clueless have-nots. We Ghanaians,
especially the so-called educated elites schooled in neocolonialisms and spoon-fed
with addictive hegemonic nonsense, always compare our sordid and reckless
postcolonial retrogression, what we call development and democracy, with those of
“Western” societies. Such comparisons are not only misguided, but laughable as well.
Let us be candid here: nowhere in the “Western” world would the bizarre
circumstances surrounding Mills’ death go away
without any questions asked as if it is like the rising and the setting of the sun
– a natural everyday phenomenon! Investigating Mills’ death will help us to
understand, for instance, the reasons for the inability of the Castle mafia and
staff to be there for Mills when he needed them the most and also to develop better
structures to avoid such despicable missteps in our history in the future.
“President John Dramani Mahama has defended the rationale behind his regional tour
to thank the people for their contribution towards the final funeral rites of the
late President Mills. “Traditionally when somebody helps you to perform a funeral of
a departed one, it is only fair that you thank the fellow, and so my tours are
justified,” President Mahama explained…at the Jackson Park in Koforidua, as part of
his Eastern Regional tour, said it was improper to go on air or on phone to thank
people who had contributed immensely in the performance of the funeral of the late
President” (Ghanaweb August 23, 2012).
I am Prez “Goodluck” Mahama
On TV, I said “Thank You”
To Ghanaians, foreigners
And I am still thanking you
I am on Thank You tours
Thanks for not listening to me
For not listening to the following:
Why & how Mills died
Why there were no Aides
Why there was no motorcade
Why there was no ambulance
Why Castle cameras didn’t work
Why Mills ended up in a Maternity Ward
Thank You for listening to my cacophony
Listen to me Ghanaians
I, Mahama, am shining like Mills
I am bright but dull, uninspiring
Brimming with Mills’ ineptitude
Brimming with Mills’ incongruities
It was improper, I said to you all
To thank you on national TV
But, I “Goodluck” Mahama did it
I, Mahama, went on air to thank you
I, Mahama, am now thank you tours
Yes, I am Goodluck Mahama
I, the author of the Coup
I, the author, am touring
Thank you to you all
For Mills’ death
For Mills’ funeral
For Mill’s burial
Oh! You did not HEAR me
You did not hear the Thank You
Okay, I plan to visit every corner
Of Ghana
To say Thank You
For Mills’ death
For burying Mills
For making me President
Nigerians have their Goodluck
Ah! I am Ghana’s Goodluck
So Here I come
Bearing Thank You
Thank you Tarkwa
We shall take your gold
We shall give it to Whites
The Chinese are welcome
Thank you Cape Coast
China will build a stadium for you
For free
Stadium that has it all
Water, electricity
Jobs, schools
Tea and Fante Dokono
Thank you Volta
I won’t let you down
You remained on course
Travelled like the sun
Under Kufour’s NPP
NPP didn’t let you down
Your JJ did let you down
Our Mills let you down
The least developed region
You are NDC’s World Bank
That the NDC made poor
That the NPP made rich
Provided better roads, water
Provided good schools
Provided Sea Defense
Provided public latrines
Provided Ho traffic lights
I know you Voltarians
You just like the NDC
It is innately political
It is your addictive cult
Of NDC’s deceitful promises
Thank you Koforidua
I came to Jackson Park
I saw Oboanoma
The center of cocoa
The center of wealth
Without wealth
Wealth paid to Woyome
The Koforidua flowers
Flowers have withered in Accra
I am Prez “Goodluck” Mahama
I am on Thank You tours
Thank you for listening to me
Listening to my cacophnoy
Thank You
*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 My poems and essays on Ghanaweb
and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in part for any academic or
scholarly work without my written permission.Top of Form
