*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD
[ONE of the “tribalistic” John Mahama’s ten thousand “Northerner” appointees,] “a Deputy Interior Minister James Agalga has challenged the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party to purge himself of the infamous “all-die-be-die” mantra which he used in the run-up to the 2012 elections. He maintains Nana Akufo-Addo must "openly denounce" the mantra and apologize for it. Only then would he be seen to have learnt his lessons from the past. Agalga was speaking on Joy FM and Multi TV's news analysis program Newsfile on Saturday” (Ghanaweb, March 22, 2014).
NANA AKUFO-ADDO must never apologize for “All die be die and/or Yen Akanfo” utterances, not to the AGALGAS of Ghanaian politics, not to non-Akans, not to any god, etc. Unfortunate as Akufo-Addo’s statements sound, both were mere rhetorical grenades unleashed in the moment of consummate political passion and intimate declarative inspiration. Absolutely, both statements had pugnacious implications, not formulaic “tribal” renderings. Other politicians, ethnic groups, academics, etc. have said and done worse things. This does not justify Akufo-Addo’s unfortunate utterances, but his utterances should not be exploited as an additional politicized watershed to demonize and marginalize Akans. That said, could you imagine Akufo-Addo asking Akans to vote for him because he is an Akan the way that John Mahama had asked “Northerners” to vote for him because he is a “Northerner”? Nope! That day Ewes and “Northerners” would have stopped the movement of the sun in Akanland. Could anyone imagine Akan chiefs, for example, Akyemfo, Akwamufo, Kwahufo, and Akuapemfo, invading Accra to support “one of their sons” the way that some backwater Ewe chiefs marched all the way from their perennially NDC-underdeveloped so-named World Bank enclave to colonize Accra to paradoxically support Woyome? Nope! That day, Ewes and “Northerners” would have stopped the flow of the Volta into the Akosombo Dam.
THE NPP and all stakeholders, indeed, peace-loving Ghanaians should seize the moment to tell sanguinary Ewe and Northern politicians who are just strategizing to salt their akple and tuo safi politics, and who have patented and customized bloody political capital out of Akufo-Addo’s persuadable utterances, to ask Rawlings to apologize to all Ghanaians. This is because Rawlings did not only preach about death, but in reality slaughtered Ghanaians at will on his altar of devolution and mayhem. Paradoxically, Rawlings, the tin-god of Ewes and the godfather of Northerners’ anti-Akan sentiments, has continued to sanitize his atrocities exemplified by his recent meeting with students in the Volta Region, where he justified the murder of Utuka and co as well as the demeaning of market women under his watch.
THE DAY Akufo-Addo apologizes to NDC “tribalistic” stomach politicians’ demands will be the era that his political sun will set and fall apart on the “tribalized” earth of Ghana. In sum, Akufo-Addo’s avid NDC opponents who are baiting him will belabor and harvest his apology for grand political gains. Unlike other corrupt politicians like Mahama, no one has been able to pin corruption on Akufo-Addo. Yes, Ewe-“Northern” politicians and academics have tried all they could to “Kpegalize” Akufo-Addo, but failed. They are hoping that demonizing Akufo-Addo with his unfortunate utterances will carry the day among benighted Ghanaian masses who are suffering from the excesses of the Mahama regime, the worst government in Ghana’s postcolonial history.
Yes, yen Akanfo
Yes, all die be die
All are empowering
Ayekoo Nana Akufo-Addo
Yes, I salute Akufo-Addo
For speaking truth to NDC’s “tribalism”
NDC, the withering leaf in wind
NDC, the rudderless ship in a storm
Akans are being eclipsed big time
Under P/NDC Akans lost it all
Under the guidance of Awonoor
Their hard-achieved businesses
Their hard-won enterprises
Their world was destroyed
Ah! Yen Akanfo
Have become docile
Pushed around
Ah! Sarfo-Adu Pharmaceuticals
Ah! KOWUS Motors
Ah! Bonsu Brothers Stores
Ah! Siaw Tata Brewery
Ah! Appiah Menka Soap
Ah! Kwabena Darko Poultry Farm
Ah! Kufour Transport
Ah! Henry Ani “I Shall Return”
Ah! B.B. Bismarck Wholesales
Ah! Yaw Man Mechanical Lloyd
Hmm! JJ protected Nkulenu Industries
Ayekoo Nana Akufo-Addo
You should’ve repeated it
Ghana is on a precipice
Dominated by two ethnic groups
Those who demonize
All die be die and Yen Akanfo
The worst “Tribalists”
Brimming in the Volta, Savanna
Hubris of inferiority
Should call on JJ to apologize
Their tin-god & their godfather
Of purveying anti-Akan sentiments
JJ killed hundreds
JJ killed Akan judges
Yet these Northern politicians
Yet these Ewe politicians
They adore JJ
Like houseflies on political excreta
Nana Akufo-Addo
Don’t mind the AGALGAS
We know them
Opportunistic politicians
Who divide us to rule us
Stomach politicians
Who divide us to prey on us
Pen-armed robbers
Who divide us to prey on us
Educated thieves, bandits, killers
Preying, plundering, prowling
Pilfering, purloining, pillaging
Pillaging the womb of Mother Ghana
Killers of the dream
*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.
