NDC Castles Nepotistic Education

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

Last week 250 Ghanaian students were hosted by the vice president John Mahama. They were going to Cuba for six years of medical training. The total cost for the entire program is GHC 160 million. With our superior infrastructure and training, the cost of training a medical doctor for the entire period of study in Ghana is GHC20, 000. This means the total cost of training the 250 students here in Ghana would be GHC50million. The scholarship distribution is worrying and dangerous to the unity and harmony of this multi-ethnic state. Of the 250 Ghanaians selected, a total of number of 122 was allocated to the 10 regions as follows: Ashanti 6, Eastern 7, Central 12, Volta 10, Gt. Accra 17, Brong Ahafo 9, Northern 10, Western 18, Upper West 12, and Upper East 21. The remaining 138 beneficiaries on the protocol list of the vice president/scholarship secretariat/Ministry of Health, only 27(19.5%) persons were Akans and other southern “tribes” (Abridged from Ghanaweb May 31, 2012)

The postcolony is gripped

Gripped by pen-armed robbers

Our new tyranny of orthodoxy

Gripped by pen-armed robbers

Ah! The killers of the dream

The pen-armed robbers

The educated bandits

Dancing on one foot

Trapped in the air

Like soaring vultures

In the air validating historic theft

In the air hostage to mediocrity

Where greed is kinship to power

Where greed is a ship to power

Where “tribe” is democracy

Ah! These aberrations of the past

Aberrations of the past in the present

Boy: Massa, here we meet again

Massa: Thank God for life, Boy

Boy: How the go dey go, Massa

Massa: I dey rush for Airport

Boy: Eh! Massa you dey escape

Massa: Oh! My boss girl dey travel

Boy: Your Massa daughter for enjoy

Massa: Ah no! That be his girlfriend

Boy: These politicians get money

Massa: Dem all be thief like Ata Ayi

Boy: So boss send girl for shopping

Massa: Hmm! The girl dey go for Cuba

Boy: Whetin dey for Cuba for am

Massa: She dey go for medical school

Boy: Boss go pay for medical school

Massa: She dey go for scholarship

Boy: Ah! Tribal Scholarship Secretariat

Massa: Na dis one for 250 students

Boy: 250 students for scholarship

Massa: NDC give GH¢160,510,000

Boy: That be huge money paa oh

Massa: NDC pikins get all scholarship

Boy: We the Mmbrowa dey suffer

Massa: They for use the money here

Boy: Ah! Dem dey chop money here

Massa: They for build medical schools

Boy: Yes, build them here, not for Cuba

Massa: Ah! Dem get 10 percent

Boy: Hmm! Educated thieves dey oh

In the postcolony of “tribalism”

Where we celebrate nepotism

Where regionalism is kinship

Ah! Our nepotistic brokerage

At BNI/CID

At the Castle

In the Army

In the Ministries

At Scholarship Secretariat

And we poise ineptitude

And we garland dependency

And pen-armed robbers rule

Mighty thieves

Massive corruption

Minions of greed

Multiplying predators

Ministering triviality with grandiosity

Ministering mediocrity with futility

The killers of the dream

Pen-armed robbers

Educated thieves

Selfish politicians

Who ride on the sore back

Of benighted citizens

Of marginalized citizens

Of a rudderless state

Adrift in watershed of greed

Tumbling in waterfall of greed

The postcolony is gripped

Gripped by pen-armed robbers

Ah! The killers of the dream

The pen-armed robbers

The educated bandits

Dancing on one foot

Trapped in the air

Where greed is kinship to power

Where greed is a ship to power

Where “tribe” is democracy

Ah! These aberrations of the past

Aberrations of the past in the present

*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.