*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.



“Accra, Feb. 5, GNA- Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Trade and Industry, on Friday said the operational problems surrounding the Toyota Camry cars were limited to those manufactured in United States of America” (Ghanaweb February 5, 2010).



PROLOGUE

The American and Japanese leaders

The aristocracies of Toyota

Are investigating Toyota’s failing brakes

But the pimps for Konkompe Toyota

Our Ghanaian officials could care less

Thievery NPP, NDC and DDT officials

As always look the other way

When it matters the most to the masses

Blindsided with baits of greedy ineptitude



And so the Minister-Agent of Toyota

Ms. Hannah Tetteh of Trade & Industry

The agent of Konkompe Toyota

Hit the ground and grappled like Mills

Choiring praises for Toyota’s brakes

Mills’ Team C

The Bastards, thieves, illiterates

Courtesy of JJ he who knows it all

Ms. Tetteh summoned Toyota’s muse

All Toyotas under Kokompe’s auspices

Are safe and BRAKING as hard as Mills



Ms. Tetteh waxed lyrical in Team C notes

Lyrics of KONKOMPE TOYOTA BRAKES:



STANZA 1:

The four 4 X 4 Toyota Highlanders

Made in Colonial Ridge (JJ Models)

Are very safe and braking like Mills

All have special bullet-proof brakes

And JJ’s friends bought it for JJ



STANZA 2:

Ho & Keta, the NDC poor World Bank

Manufacture Toyotas that lack brake parts

But ably takes all “Keta School Boys”

Via Royal Ridge to house the Osu Castle



STANZA 3:

Toyota cars made in Mankessim

Home of ADZE WO FIE OYE

Can make use of Fante dokono

As combo valves for its brake



STANZA 4:

Toyota cars made in K4 Hotel 4 K4

Are all safe and running like Asabee

All have BMWs & Chrysler brakes

Made by Hotel K4 Bank-Loans Co.



STANZA 5:

That Konkompe Toyota parts

Dumped into our stately perfumed lake

Of the Korle Lagoon’s splurge are safe

It can be used to service Toyota brakes



EPILOGUE IN PAR- LIE- MENT

And so the Minister-Agent of Toyota

Ms. Hannah Tetteh

Hit the ground and grappled like Mills

Choiring the praises of Toyota’s brakes

Went to Parliament

Adorned with the trappings of falsehood

The sacrosanct fabric of our Parliament

And singled out Toyota’s problem in the USA

But Ghanaians in the USA bring home Toyotas

Hmm! Toyota’s problems are worldwide

But our Parliamentarians could care less

When their thievery ears are on the floor

Glued to the floor of greedy corruption

To pick up signals of $50, 000 car loans

To buy 4 X 4 Toyota Highlanders

As defective vehicles are killing Ghanaians

And at the Saltpond General Hospital

Winneba Hospital, Kasoa Clinic

Doctors use flash-lights, candles

To operate on vehicular accident victims

And so Parliament

Where $50, 000 gift-loans are freely plucked

Concerns of Ghanaians are a non-issue

And so from our thievery elites, officials

Chiefs, pastors, Council of State

Our thievery elites don’t care

No planning except official thievery

And the impoverished, benighted

Worship hopeless thievery elites

Out of “tribalism,” regionalism

Of naiveté and of crisis of hope



NPP, NDC, eternal DDTs in our midst

Why do you always disappoint us

Push the masses onto the precipice of misery

Pummeled by your politics of lies

Even when it is about car brakes

That we don’t manufacture

And have nothing to lose

But more to gain from

You fail to speak truth to problems that kill us

Speak truth to issues that inferiorize us

Even with foreign car brakes

You disappoint

With lyrics of misery, despair

A symptom of our Africanized hopelessness

In the midst of abundant resources

In the midst of abundant human capital

Patented mediocrity is our bliss



*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