Mahama’s Escorts His 4,800 Female Witnesses to Court

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

**Submitted on January 17, 2013

“President John Dramani Mahama has filed his response to a petition by three

personalities of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenging his election as President

in the December 7, 2012 presidential election and indicated his intention to call

4,800 witnesses to state his case” (Ghanaweb January 14, 2013).

4,800 witnesses

Truth needs no witness

Truth prevails on truth only

Truth prevails on only truth

Truth promotes truth to prevail

Truth needs no witness

Not even one witness

Mahama has 4,800 witnesses

4,800 witnesses

Alive and well

In our lively decay

Life of the lifeless

4,800 witnesses

Alive and lifeless

The political vermin in our midst

Like the vulture on a preying pose

4,800 witnesses

Mahama have them all

4,800 witnesses, great witnesses

Mahama have them all

The female bats of 37 Hospital

The female mosquitoes of Korle Bu

The female cockroaches of Effia Nkwanta

The female houseflies of Okomfo Anokye

The female maggots of Ho Hospital

The female wasps of Tamale Hospital

The female termites of Tetteh Quarshie

The female weevils of Sunyani Hospital

They are coming

4,800 witnesses

Mahama have had them all

4,800 witnesses

Garlanded with truth

Bedecked with truth

Decorated with truth

Ornamented with truth

Bejeweled with truth

Adorned with truth

They are coming

4,800 witnesses

Oh! WREATHED in truth

4,800 witnesses

The pride of our politics

4,800 witnesses

Pregnant with enthusiasm

Mahama bought them all

With computers

With television sets

With cell phones

With pieces of cloth

With fifty Ghana cedi notes

With used fridges

With cars

With Schnapps

With food

With cooking oil

With promises to irrigate the whole Ghana

4,800 witnesses

Our politics of deceit

Killers of the dream

These pen-armed robbers

Who kill us with ink

Who kill us with signatures

Who kill us on paper

4,800 witnesses

Alive and well

In our lively decay

4,800 witnesses

Alive and well

In our lively decay

Life of the lifeless

*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.