*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“Kofi Safo, a 26- year- old ex-convict, was on Friday sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for stealing [25] cassava [plants] from a farm at Kwahu Bepong by an Mpraeso Circuit Court. Safo, who had just returned from prison after serving a five- year sentence for stealing, pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced on his own plea” (Ghanaweb June 2, 2012).

“The Akim Oda Magistrate Court has slapped 18 months jail term on Kwasi Kahoho, a farmer, for stealing 11 bunches of plantain valued 100 Ghana cedis. The 28-year-old farmer pleaded guilty to stealing. Mr. Albert Owusu Annor, the presiding judge, convicted him on his own plea. Police Chief Inspector, Adelaide Appiakorang told the court that the complainant, Madam Akosua Aboagyewaa, is a farmer who lives at Aduasa, while Kahoho lives at Akortikrom in the Birim South District” (February 26, 2014).

Justice in flight
Soaring like vultures over prey
With savage glee
Lacerating justice
Ah! Ghanaian justice has it
Like the vulture
It has its prey
Has its prey
The poor
The marginalized
The unconnected
The benighted
The illiterate
The ones in the backwater
They get 1000 seasons in jail
For taking one tuber of cassava
The WOYOMES are free and regaled

Ten years in jail
Eighteen months in jail
For stealing cassava
Woyome stole $51 million
He is still free
Enjoying his loot
Feted by rich and powerful
Celebrated by his kinspeople
Who calls him their favorite son
He is protected by the NDC
Who calls him their financier
Public celebration & freedom
For stealing $51 million from the state

The pen-armed robbers among
Steal to get state burials
They get state burials
For predatoring 51 million cedis
For predatoring Hotel Kufour
For predatoring CASHPRO
For predatoring Nsawam Cannery

There is no party to shield you
There is no NPP
There is no NDC
To shield you
When you are a cassava thief
When you are a commoner thief

There is NPP
There is NDC
To shield you
When you are Woyome
When you Ahwoi CASHPRO
When you are Sakyi-Hughes
When you are Kufour Hotel

There are no lawyers
To defend you
When you are a cassava thief

There are lawyers
To defend you
When you are Woyome

There are no protestors
To come to your aid
When you are a cassava thief

There are protestors
Who come to your aid
When you are Woyome

There are no chiefs to call you “our son”
They won’t abandon their regional poverty
Ah! To support you
When you are a cassava thief

There are chiefs to call you “our son”
They forget their regional poverty
Hmm! To support you
When you are Woyome

Pen-armed robbers are free
Administering their toxic justice
The pen-armed robbers
The killers of the dream
The vultures among us
They get full pension
They get honor
They walk free
Pen-armed robbers
Who rob us
Who lacerate our hearts
Ah! Their tyranny of orthodoxy

*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. All 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.