*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

They are everywhere
The “stealers”
Of gold
Of money
Of cars
Of land
Of elections
Of mansions
Of wives/husbands
They are everywhere
They are also at the EC
Pen-armed robbers
Worshipped by the masses
Educated bandits
Brandishing stolen wealth
They are Akans
They are Ewes
They are Ga-Adangbes
They are “Northerners”
They are Guans
They are all predators
Predators that patent corruption
The educated bandits
Educated to kill dreams
Educated to serenade poverty
Educated to yarn mediocrity
They are morally bankrupt
The educated bandits
They are also at the Electoral Commission

They are in the air
They are our carbon monoxide
Poisons of poverty
Poisons of marginality
Poisons of putrefaction
Poisons of neocolonialism
The neocolonized elites
The killers of the dream
The new colonialists
The bloody thieves
Educated predators
In suits
In batakari
In ties
Tied to predation
The pen-armed robbers
They buy our votes
With
Chamber-pots
Goats/sheep & chicken
Rice & gari
Cutlasses/hoes
Bicycles
Cars, TV
Cell phones, IPods
Cash
Kente
That is our moral bankruptcy
That is our national lunacy

Turn left
You find pen-armed robbers
Turn right
You find pen-armed robbers
Look forward
You find pen-armed robbers
Look back
You find pen-armed robbers
They are everywhere
The Presidency
The Ministries
The Parliament
The judiciary
The Palace
The army
The police
The Prisons
The Fire Service
The Scholarship Secretariat
The Birth & Death Registry
The school
The Church
The hospital
The palace
The port/harbor
The airport
The Customs/Excise
The Lands Department
The Passport Office

They are everywhere
The predators
The thieves
The morally bankrupt
They are also at the Electoral Commission
They are in the air
They are our carbon dioxide
The neocolonialist elites
The new colonialists
Educated predators
In suits
In ties
In Batakari
In ties
Tied to predation
They are everywhere
The “stealers”
They also at the EC
Pen-armed robbers
Worshipped by the masses

*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.