*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

**The family of the late Emmanuel Owusu Ansah, an NPP MP, must call Samuel Okudzeto
Ablakwa to order for mocking and politicizing the death of their beloved one.

“A Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has indicated that the
death of former Ashanti Regional Minister and MP for Kwabre West, Emmanuel Asamoah
Owusu Ansah, was the result of rumours that President Mills was dead. [Ablakwa]
linked rumours about the president’s death to the opposition NPP [and] stressed that
Mr. Owusu Ansah, an NPP MP died because his party had alleged that President Mills
was dead” (Ghanaweb June 26, 2012).

“A tape recording has been circulating in the media with a voice purported to be
that of the NDC National Chairman [Dr. Kwabena Adjei] claiming that people close to
and at the Castle were responsible for planning and executing rumours of the
President’s death for their own selfish agenda. Reactions from within the NDC and
without have been swift with some condemning him for the statements while others
have expressed their disbelief that the voice is authentic” (Ghanaweb June 29,
2012).

Okudzeto-Ablakwa
He
Who
Has not
Cut his teeth
Says stupid things
He whose teeth are not cut
He
Who
Has
Big rabbit-teeth
Teeth that break all
Glass of experience
Glass of courtesy
Glass of respect
Glass of dignity

Ah! Gargantuan teeth
One tooth looks west
One tooth looks east
Long parting teeth
Uncut parting teeth
Makes parting shot
At the dearly departed
Parting shot at the dead
Teeth that have bruised Mills
Teeth that mock Owusu Ansah
Teeth that politicize the dead

NDC don’t blame NPP
NDC should blame NDC
Blame Spio-Gabrah
The man who spews
Spewed that Mills was ill
Trumpeted Mills’ illness
NDC publicized Mills’ illness
Publicized at NDC Convention
Then NDC pawned Mills’ illness
Today it is for public sympathy
To demonize the NPP
To criminalize Akufo-Addo
To mock the dead NPP MP

Ablakwa the boy
Who bares his teeth
His Gargantuan teeth
Like a Keta School Boy
Gasping for breath
Double-pronged teeth
Pronging his teeth in public
With its grating noise
Cacophonous noise
Grating noise
Ah! teeth at war
Teeth-clashing violence

Ablakwa the boy
Who never cut his teeth
Has never cut his teeth
Not in childhood
Not in boyhood
Now cuts politics
Big teeth
That pries peace
Political neophyte
Political parvenu
Like Keta school boy
On the beach
Gasping for air
Showing big teeth
Double-pronged teeth
Gargantuan teeth
That plunges into it all
Into inexperience
Into stupidity
Into banality
Into divisiveness
These boys
Boys who drown all
Who have drowned Mills
Oh! Simpa Atta Mills
In a turbulent current
In Ablakwa’s large mouth
Where uncut teeth rules
Rules a servile tongue

*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.