*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

**I have decided to devote a series of poems to address “insider” information
ferried to me by fellow Ghanaians that deals with corruption, greed, pen-armed
robbery, sexual abuse, nepotism, “tribalism,” etc. that affect our progress as a
nation. Please, send your “insider” information to me at the email address below.
Let us speak truth to power and the nation wreckers.

Akuapemfo
Good people
The noble people
Mahama had free education
His 18 siblings had it all for free
His 31 children have it for free
Yet he seeks to stall yours and all
Your chiefs have been bribed
They have taken 400,000 dollars
To buy your noble votes
To buy your conscience
Don’t follow the greedy chiefs

Akuapemfo
Good people
The noble people
Of the rolling hills
Of the serene hills
You who pioneered civility
You the bearers of education
Don’t follow your greedy chiefs
Who follow the NDC for money

Akuapemfo
Good people
The noble people
You like education
You pioneered education
Don’t follow your chiefs
Don’t follow your greedy chiefs
Chiefs who have taken bribes
Soaring all over like vultures
Chiefs campaigning for NDC
Nation wreckers of education
Akuapems, your greedy chiefs
Chiefs have accepted NDC’s bribes
Bribery of 400,000 dollars
To buy your noble votes

Akuapemfo
Good people
Don’t follow your chiefs
Your greedy chiefs
Bribed by the NDC
Chiefs who follow NDC
Like houseflies on excreta
Their maggots of NDC-wealth
P/NDC divided Akuapem
Divided Akans & Guans
NPP brought unity
P/NDC set road-traps for you
NPP rebuilt your hilly roads

Akuapemfo
Good people
The noble people
Mahama had free education
The Northern tribalist
With ontological wounds
Of inferiorized pride
His 18 siblings had free education
Mahama’s 31 children & counting
Will have free education
Mahama had free education
But seeks to deprive others
He who calls for “tribal” votes
Tribalism as his legitimacy
Hmm! Some Akuapem chieftains
Corrupt chieftains
In jobless Akuapem
Akuapem chieftains
Champion Mahama’s goods
Retails Mahama’s goods
His goods of non-free education
In Akuapem, the citadel of learning

Akuapemfo
Good people
The noble people
Fractured Akuapem
Disempowered Akuapems
P/NDC-benighted Akuapems
PNDC-divided Akuapems
You must rise up
Atop the hills
The rolling hills of learning
Hills that pioneered education
You must rise up
Atop the hill
To set forth in two weeks
Rise up to claim free education
From the clueless Mahama
From your predatory chiefs
From your chiefs
The custodians of poverty
The custodians of joblessness
Custodians of Tetteh Quarshie Hospital
Dillapidated Tetteh Quarshie Hospital
Custodians of miseducation
In a land that pioneered education
You must set forth in two weeks
To reclaim dignity in education
From the clueless NDC
From your greedy chiefs

*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.