*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema

“A former Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Moses Asaga has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). Moses Asaga is currently the chairman of the technical committee of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC). He takes over from Alex Mould who has now been appointed the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation - GNPC” (Ghanaweb September 26, 2013).

“Alhaji Abdulai Yakubu, Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports referred to a contract signed on 23rd July, 2012, between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and NYEP now GYEEDA, on one hand, and RLG Communications on the other hand for the provision of services under RLG communications Module of the Agency” (Ghanaweb January 14, 2014).

“Tribalism”
“Tribalizing” our polity
Our untreated trauma
Our archives of pain
Our narratives of victimhood
Our memories of exclusion
Oh this “tribalism”

Time for Akans to sit up
Time for Gas to sit up
Ah! Well Ewes have sat up
Mahama has ignored them
Time for Guans to sit up
Time for all nationalists to sit up
Sit it up and say Mahama enough is enough
Enough of Northerners all over the place

Mahama is the worst tribalist
He sees only the North
Has only appointed “Northerners”
His new season of anomic politics
The apologists say the North is not homogenous
Akans are also not homogenous
Yes, we know it all
Mahama knows it too
But Mahama said Northerners vote for me
Vote me because I am a fellow Northerner
Imagine Akufo Addo telling Akans
Akanfo Akanfo eh! Vote for me because I am an Akan
On that day, the Volta would have flowed northwards

We are in the worst season of tribal politics
Apologists would say JJ did it
Apologists would say Kufour did it
Apologists would say Mills did it
Nope Simpa Atta was a surrogate
Of Adze pa wo fie

All did it
So Mahama must also do it
Mahama should appoint only Northerners
Ah! Northerners flying all over the place
Like the missing akomfem
Northerners left
Northerners right
Northerners front
Northerners back

Yes it is time to scream against tribalism
Speak up against “tribalism”
Speak truth to “tribalist” power

President John Mahama
Foams about inclusion
Like Korle Lagoon frogs
Talks about inclusion
Sings about inclusion
Coughs about inclusion
Whines about inclusion
Like Korle Lagoon frogs
His inclusion has become exclusion
Like the vanishing akomfem
His inclusion
Is including only Northerners
Is excluding only Akans
Excluding Asantes especially

John Mahama is a tribalist
The tribalist bar none
Turns left
Turns right
Looks upfront
Looks backwards
He finds his Northerners
His Northerners are everywhere
Up and running
Running Ghana
Running after tractors
Running after akomfem
Running after dry-season tree planting
Running the courts
Ah! SADA
Tree-planting in dry season
Rearing akomfem in flight
Meanwhile Tamale
Bolga
Yendi
Salaga are in ruins
Peopled by menopausal women
Called witches in witches camps

“Tribalism”
“Tribalizing” our polity
Our untreated trauma
Our archives of pain
Our narratives of victimhood
Our memories of exclusion
Of falsehoods and obfuscations
Of seductive narratives of power
Of pimping apologists of apologia
Brimming with provincial hubris
Brandishing pathologies of hypocrisy
Guided by “tribalism” rather than nationalism
Guided by short-term gains
Ah! Immediate gratification
Ah! Putative hegemonic power
Preposterous “tribalistic” victory laps

**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. Her poems and essays on Ghanaweb and elsewhere must not be reproduced in full or in part for any academic or scholarly work without her written permission.