John Mahama: Time to Appoint Akans

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Created on Sunday, 29 September 2013 00:00

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John Mahama: Time to Appoint Akans

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema

“A former Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Moses Asaga has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). Moses Asaga is currently the chairman of the technical committee of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC). He takes over from Alex Mould who has now been appointed the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation - GNPC” (Ghanaweb September 26, 2013)

Apologists would say JJ did it

Apologists would say Kufour did

Apologists would say Mills did it So Mahama must also do it

Mahama should appoint only Northerners

Ah! Northerners flying all over the place

Like the missing akomfem

Northerners left

Northerners right

Northerners front

Northerners back

No! Let us speak up

Speak up against “tribalism”

Speak truth to “tribalist” power

No more “tribal” apologists

“Tribalism”

“Tribalizing” our polity

Our untreated trauma

Our archives of pain

Our narratives of victimhood

Our memories of exclusion

Of falsehoods and obfuscations

Of seductive narratives of power

Of pimping apologists

Brimming with provincial hubris

Brandishing pathologies of hypocrisy

Guided by “tribalism” rather than nationalism

Guided by short-term gains

Ah! Immediate gratification

Ah! Putative hegemonic power

Preposterous “tribalistic” victory laps

President John Mahama

Foams about inclusion

Like Korle Lagoon frogs

Talks about inclusion

Sings about inclusion

Coughs about inclusion

Whines about inclusion

Like Korle Lagoon frogs

His inclusion has become exclusion

Like the vanishing akomfem

His inclusion

Is including only Northerners

Is excluding only Akans

Excluding Asantes especially

John Mahama is a tribalist

The tribalist bar none

Turns left

Turns right

Looks upfront

Looks backwards

He finds his Northerners

His Northerners are everywhere

Up and running

Running Ghana

Running after tractors

Running after akomfem

Running after dry-season tree planting

Ruining the North

With SADA

With tree-planting in dry season

With akomfem in flight

While Tamale

Bolga

Yendi

Salaga are in ruins

Apologists would say JJ did it

Apologists would say Kufour did

Apologists would say Mills did it

So Mahama must also do it

Mahama should appoint only Northerners

Ah! Northerners flying all over the place

Like the missing akomfem

Northerners left

Northerners right

Northerners front

Northerners back

No! Let us speak up

Speak up against “tribalism”

Speak truth to “tribalist” power

No more “tribal” apologists

**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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Her poems and essays on Ghanaweb and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in part for any academic or scholarly work without her written permission.