*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, PhD

[JJ Rawlings proclaimed] “My fellow countrymen, my value as a man of principle and integrity is incalculable. The difference is that in my situation, I have never exchanged or sold my conscience or sold my country, my principles, my integrity for money, or destroyed honourable people for money.” He spoke of June 4th as a revolution to “restore the dignity of the ordinary man and woman and punishing those who openly paraded corruption, those who dispensed favours irregularly and promoted what we used to call ‘bottom power’ in the award of contracts; those who sought to normalise a corrupt way of life in the minds of ordinary people” (JJ Rawlings’ Speech on June 4, Ghanaweb, June 4, 2103).

“Jerry John Rawlings says he will fiercely protect his Ridge residence as he alleges encroachment on the land by a developer. According to Mr. Rawlings, he has alerted the Lands Commission to stop the developer from further pulling down the concrete wall on the land. He blamed the incidence on what he calls the “growing lawlessness” in the country” (JJ Rawlings’ Speech on June 4, Ghanaweb, June 4, 2103).

JJ, spare us your sanctimony
Your holier-than-thou
Ghanaians
Diplomats in Ghana
Your cronies
The revolutionary armed-robbers
The millionaires you created
From rags to riches
They are amused
They are laughing
They are shocked
They are snickering at you
Your perennial frothing at the mouth
Your perennial platitudes of virtue
Your perennial frothing at the mouth
Like a sick puppy in search of its father
Like a Ridge-fire looking for its arsonist

JJ Rawlings
Kufour’s 8-year rule bettered your 20-year one
Mills was a better human being by far
JJ, spare us your bold lies
Your annual ritual of ornate frothing
Spare us your wee-induced speeches

JJ Rawlings, Obonsam Fireman
Spare us the ranting of the holier-than-thou
You have taken us for granted enough
You have fooled Ghanaians enough
You killed in your wee-induced trance
You have the freedom to insult us
Insult our intelligence
Insult the children of those you killed
You deprived people of their businesses
JJ, you & your wife own Nsawam Cannery
You killed people for taking 50-cedi loans
JJ, stolen wealth has made you a millionaire
The masses you claim to represent are poor
JJ, you own mansions and cottages
Thousands of street kids sleep along open gutters
JJ you educated your four kids in expensive schools
Millions of parents can’t pay fees for their wards

JJ, the man of contradictions
Of deceit
Of megalomania
Of holier-than-thou
Hmm! The murderer
Who calls himself savior
Hmm! The con man
Who calls himself Transparency
Hmm! The extravagant man
Who calls himself Penniless
Hmm! The tribalist
Who calls himself a Nationalist
Hmm! The arsonist
Who calls himself the “Fire-service”

June 4 was a watershed of theft
A moment of buffoonery excellence
JJ Rawlings never brought peace
Neither prosperity
JJ the walking encyclopedia
Of screwed up mind
Clouded by past atrocities
Fired by Ridge fire
Profuse with it all
Of deceit
Of hallucination
Of megalomania
Of a font of a damaged mind

JJ, the man of contradictions
Of deceit
Of megalomania
Of holier-than-thou
Your cruel past is haunting you

*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.