Pen-Armed Robbers Prey on Judgment Debt

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The trial judge in the controversial Alfred Woyome judgement debt saga is angry

with the apathy with which the prosecution is handling the case of retrieving ¢51 million it wrongfully paid to Woyome in judgment debt” (Abridged from Ghanaweb July 3, 2012)

“MR. OKUDZETO ABLAKWA REVEALED THAT GOVERNMENT HAD ENGAGED AAL IN A DIALOGUE WITH

THE AIM OF BEATING DOWN THEIR $1.5 BILLION CLAIM ON THE 86 ABANDONED VEHICLES”

(Ghanaweb July 3, 2012).

“[Kwamena Ahwoi] expressed concern that if the NDC fails to ‘successfully negotiate an out-of-court settlement,’ the AAL issue might suffer a similar fate like the City & Country Waste Ltd versus the AMA case, where the NPP's position that there was no contract, has led to the NDC paying damages in excess of US$12million as a result of judgment debt” (Abridged from Ghanaweb July 5, 2012).

Ghana’s pen-armed robbers

The killers of the dream

Vultures of the postcolony

Soaring in pen-armed robbery

Worse than the white predators

Worse than the white imperialists

We shall decolonize the thieves

Vultures of the postcolony

That soar in disgrace

The pen-armed robbers

The killers of the dream

The watershed of it all

Of all our problems

Of decrepit electricity

Of poisoned water

Of polluted environment

Of dilapidated hospitals

Of benighted schools

Bloody vultures

In the postcolony

In independent Ghana

Vultures of the postcolony

Worse than white imperialists

Vultures in flight

Soaring higher in theft

Scouting downwards

Beaks daggers-drawn

Claws deadly-poised

Preying on debts

Praying for debts

Judgment-debts

Praying for 10 percent

Vultures in flight

Looking for prey

In judgment debts

Preying on citizens

Praying for judgment

Pen-armed robbers

They prey on the state

They prey on citizens

Ah! Judgment debts

They prey on it all

Praying for 10 percent

Preying on judgment debts

Pen-armed robbers

Vultures of the postcolony

They prey on the state

They prey on state lands

They prey on state cars

They prey on state hotels

They prey on state factories

They prey on state tractors

They prey on state bungalows

The pen-armed robbers

The watershed of it all

Of all our problems

The pen-armed robbers

Worse than the white predators

Worse than the white colonizers

Our moment of excellence

Our national independence

From the white predators

Is their monument of greed

The pen-armed robbers

Their monumental thievery

Monumental incompetence

Greed is our independence

Greed brandished by the elites

The educated elites

The new imperialists

In the garb of woolen suits

Primeval tie to their throats

Our politicians

Our leaders

Our judges

Our chiefs/kings

Killers of the dream

Freedom will come

One day it will come

We shall arise

To reclaim dignity

The liberation of old

The theology of Tigare

The ontology of Akonedi

True true decolonization

It will rise like the wind

The wind that never sets

*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 All 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.