*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.
“Accra, Feb. 5, GNA- Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Trade and Industry, on Friday said the operational problems surrounding the Toyota Camry cars were limited to those manufactured in United States of America” (Ghanaweb February 5, 2010).
PROLOGUE
The American and Japanese leaders
The aristocracies of Toyota
Are investigating Toyota’s failing brakes
But the pimps for Konkompe Toyota
Our Ghanaian officials could care less
Thievery NPP, NDC and DDT officials
As always look the other way
When it matters the most to the masses
Blindsided with baits of greedy ineptitude
And so the Minister-Agent of Toyota
Ms. Hannah Tetteh of Trade & Industry
The agent of Konkompe Toyota
Hit the ground and grappled like Mills
Choiring praises for Toyota’s brakes
Mills’ Team C
The Bastards, thieves, illiterates
Courtesy of JJ he who knows it all
Ms. Tetteh summoned Toyota’s muse
All Toyotas under Kokompe’s auspices
Are safe and BRAKING as hard as Mills
Ms. Tetteh waxed lyrical in Team C notes
Lyrics of KONKOMPE TOYOTA BRAKES:
STANZA 1:
The four 4 X 4 Toyota Highlanders
Made in Colonial Ridge (JJ Models)
Are very safe and braking like Mills
All have special bullet-proof brakes
And JJ’s friends bought it for JJ
STANZA 2:
Ho & Keta, the NDC poor World Bank
Manufacture Toyotas that lack brake parts
But ably takes all “Keta School Boys”
Via Royal Ridge to house the Osu Castle
STANZA 3:
Toyota cars made in Mankessim
Home of ADZE WO FIE OYE
Can make use of Fante dokono
As combo valves for its brake
STANZA 4:
Toyota cars made in K4 Hotel 4 K4
Are all safe and running like Asabee
All have BMWs & Chrysler brakes
Made by Hotel K4 Bank-Loans Co.
STANZA 5:
That Konkompe Toyota parts
Dumped into our stately perfumed lake
Of the Korle Lagoon’s splurge are safe
It can be used to service Toyota brakes
EPILOGUE IN PAR- LIE- MENT
And so the Minister-Agent of Toyota
Ms. Hannah Tetteh
Hit the ground and grappled like Mills
Choiring the praises of Toyota’s brakes
Went to Parliament
Adorned with the trappings of falsehood
The sacrosanct fabric of our Parliament
And singled out Toyota’s problem in the USA
But Ghanaians in the USA bring home Toyotas
Hmm! Toyota’s problems are worldwide
But our Parliamentarians could care less
When their thievery ears are on the floor
Glued to the floor of greedy corruption
To pick up signals of $50, 000 car loans
To buy 4 X 4 Toyota Highlanders
As defective vehicles are killing Ghanaians
And at the Saltpond General Hospital
Winneba Hospital, Kasoa Clinic
Doctors use flash-lights, candles
To operate on vehicular accident victims
And so Parliament
Where $50, 000 gift-loans are freely plucked
Concerns of Ghanaians are a non-issue
And so from our thievery elites, officials
Chiefs, pastors, Council of State
Our thievery elites don’t care
No planning except official thievery
And the impoverished, benighted
Worship hopeless thievery elites
Out of “tribalism,” regionalism
Of naiveté and of crisis of hope
NPP, NDC, eternal DDTs in our midst
Why do you always disappoint us
Push the masses onto the precipice of misery
Pummeled by your politics of lies
Even when it is about car brakes
That we don’t manufacture
And have nothing to lose
But more to gain from
You fail to speak truth to problems that kill us
Speak truth to issues that inferiorize us
Even with foreign car brakes
You disappoint
With lyrics of misery, despair
A symptom of our Africanized hopelessness
In the midst of abundant resources
In the midst of abundant human capital
Patented mediocrity is our bliss
*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
