Opinions of Monday, 24 October 2011

Columnist: Mensema, Akadu N.

JJ is Holier-Than-Thou on Strikes

JJ is Holier-Than-Thou on Strikes: Stop Anti-Mills-isms

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“Former President Rawlings also in a characteristic style attacked the Professor
John Evans Mills administration describing it as incompetent for not being able to
get the doctors to call off their strike and get back to work” (Ghanaweb, October
22, 2011).

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
JJ you imposed Mills on us
You campaigned for Mills
Ah! Mills was the best
Ah! Adze pa wo fie mantra
And we bought it all, all
The Fante dokono sensibilities
Adze pa is now a tribal fish-net
Fishing for Keta School Boys

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
You have demonized all
Acheampong
Liman
Kufour
Mills
Even Nkurmah & Busia
JJ, you have demonized all
But you are the DEMON
The barking dog of a demon
With censorious barking
Unleashed from Ridge
Barking like a rabid dog
Barking at self-arsoning
Barking at Ridge smoke
Barking at your dark shadow
Barking at your failed past

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
You demonized the NPP
Ah! Mills cheered you on
Sorry! Mills is now a toast
Tasting JJ’s poisoned toast
JJ is the sanctimonious priest
With selective memories
Damaged psyche of a demon

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
JJ you never solved strikes
You brutalized strikers
You intimidated strike leaders
You poured excreta on press
Press that reported strikes
You sacked leaders of strike
You abducted opinion leaders
Intimidated them in the Castle
You fired leaders of strikes

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
JJ you had nineteen years
Of failed policies
Of strikes
Of protests
Of acute hunger
Of Rawlings’ chain
Of acute deprivations
So many wasted years
So just enjoy your loot
Thanks to coward Ghanaians
Thanks to stomach politicians
Thanks for being a god-sent
A cult-figure to some “tribes”
A cargo-cult to some groups
A vehicle for vampire-Socialists
An “oburoni” to neocolonialists

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
JJ Mills has not killed anyone
Has not brutalized us like you did
Mills has not arrested anyone
No death squads
No murderous rampage
No abuse of women
No bottle-haircut
No cement & gari
No castle dungeons

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
Oh! JJ holier than thou
The foaming vulture
That detests carcasses
Vulture of chaos
That speaks of peace
The vulture of anarchy
That talks about stability
Sanctimonious arsonists
That brings water to fire

JJ, it’s time to leave Mills alone
JJ, the gods have set you free
Free like political flatulence
Ah! Soiling your sordid legacy
It’s time to leave Mills alone

*Akadu N. 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