*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.; Post-Grad. Dipl.
* *Dedicated to the poor, marginalized, and voiceless Ghanaian
street kids, exploited by thievery politicians.
PROLOGUE: HONEST STREET KIDS
The only honest Ghanaians
The only true Ghanaians
The only hard working Ghanaians
Who have no formal neo/colonized education
Whose education has been stolen anyway
By our contemporary educated-elite thieves
Are street kids who sweat pins of poverty
Whose friends are hunger and deprivation
And who drink their impoverished sweat
Emaciated by penury and suffering
They sell China-made dog chains
For the thievery educated elites’ well-fed dogs
The street kids struggle to sell diapers
But have to compete with the Mubarak thieves
Who are paid by the state to steal from the state
Street children’s beds are public pavements
Educated thieves like Obed Asamoah dey enjoy
He de enjoy posh dollar-filled mattresses
It was the P/NDC’s under-pillow World Bank
But on the average 20 street kids sleep in airless kiosks
E.T. Mensah, the gutter-rich WDC/PDC zealot
He de sleep for 15-bedroom mansion with 15 bathrooms
He disobeyed Rawlings’ one man one toilet philosophy
Even half-baked educated ET can steal from us
And Ghanaians are happy that he did
Kwame Peprah, the most-crafted nose-man in Ghana
Dey say he no take bribe from M & J
Dem all be thieves
Rawlings be thief
Kufour be thief
Mills be thief
Na street kids no be thieves
They no de collect bribes
They no dey steal from the state like ugly Sekyi Hughes
IN MEDIAS RES: EPIC HISTORY OF THIEVERY
Our educated elite be thieves
Headmasters be thieves
School matrons be thieves
Pharmacists be thieves
Accountants be thieves
TUC people be organized thieves
Taxi-drivers be thieves
Journalists be thieves
Vice Chancellors be thieves
Judges be thieves
Business people be thieves
Castle people be thieves
Inspector/Generals be thieves
Immigration officers be thieves
Police be thieves
Dem all be greedy thieves
Our state officials dem be thieves
The chiefs are ritual thieves
Bankers be thieves
Port officials be thieves
Dokita dis or that dem be thieves
Professors without publications dem be thieves
Rev. Prophets of doom dem be thieves
So and so Esquire lawyers dem be thieves
Dem de wear colonial clowning gowns
Even discarded by the imperialists
Dem all be thieves
Even those without Dokita degree
Dey steal and buy Dokita to boost thievery
Remember Dokita Spew Garbage
Dem all be thieves, thieves
Educated thieves dem dey like armed robbers
Except that dem dey use pen to steal and kill
FLASHBACK: P/NDC & NPP ALL BE THIEVES
Dokita Dokita Rawlings
He be thief
Papa Rawlings is a thief
But his friends dey steal for him
Friends dey pay school fees for him
Friends dey buy posh cars for him
Papa Rawlings now has his own mansions
Ask him how much the palaces de cost
He go say alien friends build for him
Papa Kufour is a thief man
Our unemployed Chief, Kufour’ son
Bought the most expensive hotel
Dem all be thief, our chiefs be thieves
Wireko Brobbey is a fattened thief
One-man thief of our 50th Year
Kwame Bartels be thief
Asamoah Boateng be thief
Ayariga, the war monger be five-tractor thief
Bagbin incest anthropologist
He be tractor thief too
Dem all be thieves
Dem all be thieves
Dem de steal from Ghana
Dem de steal from street kids
Dem de steal from poor farmers
Dem all be thieves, thieves
Sekyi Hughes, ugliest Fante man be thief
Dem de think for only their pockets
They no dey care about street kids
Dem dey sell Ghana to M & J, etc.
Dr George Sipah-Yankey (Min. of Health, NDC) £10,000
Ato Quarshie (ex-Min of Roads and Highways, NDC) £55,000
Saddique Bonniface (ex-Min of Works, NPP) £10,000 + £13,970 + £2,500 + £500
Amadu Seidu (Min of State at the Castle, NDC) £10,000
Edward Lord-Attivor (Chairman inter-city transport corp) £10,000
Edward Attipoe - £10,000
Danny Ofori-Atta (EGLE Party) -The lobbyist
Baba Kamara (HC designate to Nigeria)
Konadu be thief of Nsawam Cannery
Obed Asamoah, the mattress-under banker
PV Obeng be thief of young girls’ thighs
Dem al l be thieves
EPILOGUE: OUR PERPETUAL SUFFERING
Thievery is now our most prized norm
It is thief make I thief culture
Championed by hopeless poly-trickians
Dem all be thievery specialists
But Ghana people mostly dey love thieves
But Ghana people mostlydey respect thieves
Ghana people mostly dey admire thieves
Ghana people mostly dey praise thieves
Ghana people mostly dey worship thieves
Educated thieves get the most beautiful women
Look at ugly Asabee and his prized wife
Educated thieves get the most handsome men
Educated thieves get sycophantic adulation
Thieves, thieves dey get the best honor
Thieves, thieves dey get the best hero-worship
Thieves, thieves dey get the best funeral
Thieves be the biggest chiefs
Dem all be thieves
But coward Ghanaians dey love thieves
Ghanaians always dey say enye hwee [No problem]
Ghanaians always dey say fa Nyame [Give it God]
But Ghanaians dey suffer suffer oh Ghanafo
Ghanafo 50, 000 dollars for educated thieves
To buy cars to swim in potholes of their making
The educated thieves dey enjoy thievery
PERORATION: ALL GHANAIANS SPEAK UP
Those who have pens of war on thievery should write
Those who have fists of dissatisfaction should mount them
Put aside partisanship, ethnicity, regionalism, passivity
Let us all be fearless nationalists for the good of Ghana
Let us speak truth to thievery in demo-crazy power
Workers must rise up now to demand probity
Before another reckless revolution occurs
That day our most expensive perfume of Korle Lagoon
Located near our sickly dilapidated Korle Bu Hospital
Will become our bloody watershed hall of shame
*Akadu N. Mensema is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral historian cum sociologist, and is a Professor in the USA. She writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com
