*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.
