Prez Mahama’s Hypocrisy: Blame-Game Grenades

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Category: Arts

Created on Sunday, 05 August 2012 00:00

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05 August 2012

Prez Mahama’s Hypocrisy: Blame-Game Grenades

“President John Mahama has asked Ghanaians to emulate the generosity of the spirit that was characteristic of the life of the late president John Atta Mills and forgive those who vilified him. President Mahama was addressing a sea of mourners at the Efua Sutherland Park where thousands of Ghanaians converged for the One Week remembrance of the late President Mills” (Ghanaweb July 31, 2012).

**AN ASIDE: What did Efua Sutherland contribute to national development that necessitates naming a building at the University of Ghana, Legon, and a park after her? Yes, she wrote some plays and contributed to education and empowerment of women. That said, there are other Ghanaians who made better contributions to our national growth and conscientization. From my standpoint, the elevation of the Sutherlands, for example, borders on privileging elitism! When shall we have parks and buildings named after all the heroes of the 1948 “Riots” – let us call it a REVOLUTION - the Hilla Limans, etc.

Prez John Mahama

It is not yet sunrise

The clouds still have tears

Don’t be impetuous

Like a vulture on the dead

First forgive yourself and all

All the Castle slavemasters

You who held Mills captive

You who soared on silence

Soared on the vilified Mills

It is you who need forgiveness

All those who exploited Mills

Mills’ lethargic leadership

Leadership piloted by illness

Illness nursed by greedy bastards

Like vultures feeding on the dead

It is you who need cleanliness

Today Mahama is casting blame

Yesterday, he was a complicit vulture

Remained silent as Mills was vilified

The Mahamas remained unvoiced

The Mahamas signed contracts

The Mahamas made huge deals

The Mahamas paid judgment debts

The Mahamas of greedy bastards

As Mills drowned from it all

From Chemotherapy

From Radiation

From being drowsy

From sleep-inducing medicine

From being incoherent in public

Ah! The seasons of Mills’ anomy

It was the harvests for the Mahamas

John Mahama

Now I know JJ was right

Ah! To question Mills’ leadership

To call you great greedy bastards

Bastards who exploited Mills

Mills the sick man in Castle chains

You forced Mills to jog in sickness

Like a sick rat seeking its grave

Bastards who imprisoned a sick man

Like a slave in the ghastly Slave Castle

Instead of a free man in the Jubilee House

John Mahama has struck gold

Gold of the Castle Presidency

In the dry savanna

Swirling dust is gold

Mahama is cast in dust

In a frenzied dance

Possessed by contortions

Contortions of the truth

Of contorted semantics

Dancing on divisive semantics

Let go divisive politics

Let tyranny of orthodoxy die

John Mahama

Waited in the wings

Silent as Mills was vilified

Reticent as Mills was vilified

Wordless as Mills was vilified

Hushed as Mills was vilified

Mahama was draped in deals

Draped in huge contracts

Waiting for the broken wings

Mills’ broken winds to fold-up

Mahama lurked in the corridors

Like a hungry Castle vulture

Poised for the Mills-prey

Preening his bloody feathers

Preening on to prey on Mills

Sniffing around like a dog

Poised for Mills to step out

To begin the Mahama-hunt

Today, I understand Rawlings

I don’t understand the Mahamas

The Mahamas were silent

Even as Saint JJ vilified Mills

The Mahamas were unvoiced

Poised as Mills was vilified

The Mahamas lied to Ghanaians

The Mahamas forced Mills to jog

Like a diseased rat in a rainstorm

Like a smoked rat in Ridge fire

Mills was slow & unhurried

Like a flea in the Castle’s crevice

Mills was deliberately imprisoned

Like a slave in the savage Castle

The Mahamas were slave-masters

They were the cruel slave-masters

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

*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. 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.