*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD
“Like they said prior to the 2008 elections, this same propagandist party [NDC] campaigned on one-time premium payment on NHIS…5years on, nothing has changed. Rather, for the scums that they are, they are using Ashanti Region as a cash cow to finance and capitalize the NHIS for the whole Ghana, on the flimsy excuse that it has the most population density and diversity to pilot some useless co-payment study. Is there any region more diverse and dense than Greater Accra? They won't do it there because that will cause them votes. Ashanti is okay for them because they can't win there anyway. Who starts a pilot project study on a focus group that is the biggest of the population you are trying to study? Except clueless and useless NDC! What they are doing is like starting a new drug trial on the biggest population sector, when common sense should tell you that the propensity of something going wrong and the consequences thereof is huge, and therefore you should start [with] a small population. Why not start in your World Bank regions [Volta and the North] to see their viability and popularity? And just look at how he [Mahama] framed the start date of his so-called free Senior High School initiative…2015/2016, perfectly timed to coincide with the election cycle so that he can say they are offering the same thing the NPP is offering (THIS is abridged with permission from OYOKOBA who contributed to the discussions of the news item entitled, “Mahama denies claims that gov’t discriminating against people of Ashanti,” General News of Monday (Ghanaweb), 3 March 2014.”
“President Mahama says it is not true government seeks to discriminate against the people of the Ashanti Region as regards the National Health Insurance Scheme. He says the choice of Ashanti Region for implementation of the National Health Insurance Capitation pilot was informed by its diversity and population, and the likelihood of the pilot scheme yielding findings that would guide future decisions. President Mahama has, therefore, asked the people of Ashanti and all service providers to bear with Government and trust its intentions” (Ghanaweb March 3, 2014).
Yes it is time to scream against “tribalism”
Speak up against “tribalism”
Speak truth to “tribal” power
Akans are suffering
Akans suffered from Simpa Mills
Simpa Mills’ Keta school boys’ “tribalism”
Akans are suffering under Mahama
Mahama’s Akomfem “tribalism”
Mahama is the worst “tribalist”
Brimming with batakari hubris
Entombed in batakari “tribalism”
He sees only the North
Has appointed only “Northerners”
He is using Asante for his experiments
In his season of anomic politics
His NHIS policy is anti-Asante
NDC says Asante Region is Asante
Yet Mahama talks about its diversity
Mahama has excluded Asantes/Akans
Mahama is “tribalizing” our polity
Mahama is pure anti-Asante
His NHIS policy is-anti-Asante
Ah! This Batakari “Tribalism”
Our untreated trauma
Our archives of pain
Our memories of exclusion
Oh this “tribalism”
Time for Akans to sit up
Time for Asantes to sit up
Time for all nationalists to sit up
Sit it up and say Mahama enough is enough
Enough of the Northerners all over the place
The apologists say the North is not homogenous
Apologists would say JJ did it
Apologists would say Kufour did it
Apologists would say Mills did it
Nope Simpa Atta was an Ewe surrogate
Oh! Adze pa wo fie
Adze pa that never was
Mahama has appointed only Northerners
Ah! Northerners flying all over the place
Like the missing akomfem
They have taken over space
Like Akomfem in flight
Northerners left
Northerners right
Northerners front
Northerners back
Mahama
Foams about inclusion
Talks about inclusion
Sings about inclusion
Coughs about inclusion
Whines about inclusion
Croaks about inclusion
Like the foaming Korle Lagoon
His inclusion has become toxic
Mahama’s inclusion
Includes only Northerners
Excluding Akans
Excluding Asantes in particular
John Mahama is a “tribalist”
The tribalist bar none
Turns left, right
Looks upfront, backwards
He finds his Northerners
His Northerners are everywhere
Up and running Ghana
Running after tractors
Running after akomfem
Running after dry-season tree planting
Running the Atuguba courts
Ah! SADA, GYEEDA and all
Tree-planting in dry season
Rearing akomfem in flight
Akomfem “Tribalism”
Tools of seductive narratives of power
Tools of pimping apologists of apologia
Brimming with provincial hubris
Brandishing pathologies of hypocrisy
Guided by “tribalism” rather than nationalism
Ah! This new Akomfem tribalism
Ah! Preposterous “tribalistic” victory laps
*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.
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