(1 of 2 Parts)
*By Akadu Ntiriwa. Mensema, Ph. D.
“GNA- The … PNC has called for the celebration of Dr. Hilla Liman, President of the third Republic of Ghana, as a national hero. ‘Jan 23, 2010 marked the 12th anniversary of the death of Dr. Liman, and… the day is easily swept aside and forgotten about without regard for his contribution towards nation building saddens many’" (Ghanaweb January 24, 2010).
I. DEMONIZING LIMAN
To the end Dr. Liman was a man of honor
Even as he pushed his tired car
Assisted by kind motorists to jump-start it
His aging, battered car
Not the 16 posh cars that JJ took with him
Not as JJ rides in citadels of 4 x 4 bullet-proof cars
And conned, sweating Ghanaians chase after him
After his perfumed political stench
Cheering JJ in worn-out Charlie-wotes
Dr. Hilla Liman
Had been framed
Demonized
By Legon vampire Socialists
In the appalling, tragic pay of Rawlings
Liman framed, ghettoized
As a kola-spitting red-eyed cobra
Apio-guzzling watershed
Sweat-drowned Northerner
With perpetual hangover
Whiskey “na ma fefe” mythology
Liman
Later mocked by Akans as a “Ta ni”
Hated by Ewes for eclipsing deified Rawlings
Derided by Gas for spitting in their Osu Castle
Taunted by Northerners for being a Northerner
Dismissed by all for being Liman
A bumbling heroic newcomer
Of a simple man
Unassuming
Urbane
Honest
Not a predator like JJ
To the end Liman was a man of honor
Liman
The most honest of our leaders
The most educated of our leaders
Didn’t steal from us
Didn’t show the stolen wealth of Ridge
And so with our CARGO-CULT mentality
We Ghanaians hunted him down
With flowers of ridicule in the hands of JJ
With the avid support of vampire Socialist
Mrs. Fulera Liman
Didn’t tin-can herself in Nsawam Cannery
Became the subject of Fula-dietary jokes
Fula Fula Fooola la la Fula
Fulera Foola Fooola Liman
Choired by innocent school kids
In the garb of their parents’ prejudices
As we watched the sun
So we did watch Liman
And so Liman came to pass
Not to set in the west but in the north
II. JJ & VAMPIRES SOCIALISTS
Liman
Danced into the hands of death
Dealt by JJ Rawlings
After Kutu was shot in the head
Akuffo in the genitalia
Afrifa in the knees
Kotei in the ears
And buried like Paga crocodiles
In unmarked graves of our cowardice
Of our silence
Of our greed and thievery
Liman
Dealt by the hands of death
Of JJ Rawlings
And his minions of Legon Socialists
Vampire intellectuals
Who gave legitimacy to the hands of death
To put Liman on a drifting leach
Long rope of mockery
Legon Socialists
Who wore threadbare shirts
Faded in fading pairs of trousers
In suicidal “tie-and-dyes”
Nomadic academicians, mercenaries
Lost in the wilderness of laziness
Called their elitist lethargy Socialism
Socialists plucked and used by Rawlings
Are now filthy rich
Very rich
Kingmakers
The Tsikatas, Ahwois
Botchways
Afari Djans
The Millses
Obed Asamoahs
Rojo Mettle-Nunoos
Those who never read Socialism
But also saw socialism as a gift of thievery
The E. T. Mensahs
Dan Agbodakpis
And of the Kofi Awonoors
Trokosi-kingpins of Ghana’s De-Evolution
Cocked to marginalize Akans
The Legon Socialists
Intellectuals with limited optics
Mercenaries exploited by Warlord JJ
Socialists socialized by Sociopath JJ
Our philosopher of one thief one toilet
Who has amassed10,000 toilets
And wears the debris of excrement with pride
Killed Kutu like a pest
Killed Akufo like a pest
Demonized
Sent off Liman like a pest
But Rawlings is now living in pestilence
III. RAWLINGS’ KENKEY SOCIALISM
JJ Voyaged several times to Legon
To Chokor, the Nkrumah Circle
Wielding kenkey as his anti-Liman missile
Frothing on his demagoguery
That Liman had increased the price of kenkey
Coward Ghanaians
Came to believe the hand of death
Coward Ghanaians
Fed on lies about Liman
Lies of cola-spitting
Of drinking like a dry savannah grass
JJ toured all over the place
Legon campus, his Old Ridge
Weaponizing plantain, kenkey, bread
Powdering himself with konkonte
Missiled against the Liman regime
For bringing hardships to Ghanaians
All weapons of deceit
To slaughter Liman
IV. LIMAN: ETERNAL CELEBRATION
Ghanaians celebrate thieves
We deify thieves and crooks
Those who preach one thief one toilet
But have amassed 10,000 toilets
Whose stench we celebrate
Reeking bouquet we hold with pride
We pay eternal respect to thieves
Liman was not one of us
Liman was not a thief, a crook
PNC allow Liman to remain a non-Ghanaian
Let him rest in eternal honor
History is his eminent resting place
*Akadu N. 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
