Pen-Armed Robbers Prey on Judgment Debt

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The trial judge in the controversial Alfred Woyome judgement debt saga is angry
with the apathy with which the prosecution is handling the case of retrieving ¢51 million it wrongfully paid to Woyome in judgment debt” (Abridged from Ghanaweb July 3, 2012)

“MR. OKUDZETO ABLAKWA REVEALED THAT GOVERNMENT HAD ENGAGED AAL IN A DIALOGUE WITH
THE AIM OF BEATING DOWN THEIR $1.5 BILLION CLAIM ON THE 86 ABANDONED VEHICLES”
(Ghanaweb July 3, 2012).

“[Kwamena Ahwoi] expressed concern that if the NDC fails to ‘successfully negotiate an out-of-court settlement,’ the AAL issue might suffer a similar fate like the City & Country Waste Ltd versus the AMA case, where the NPP's position that there was no contract, has led to the NDC paying damages in excess of US$12million as a result of judgment debt” (Abridged from Ghanaweb July 5, 2012).

Ghana’s pen-armed robbers
The killers of the dream
Vultures of the postcolony
Soaring in pen-armed robbery
Worse than the white predators
Worse than the white imperialists
We shall decolonize the thieves
Vultures of the postcolony
That soar in disgrace
The pen-armed robbers
The killers of the dream
The watershed of it all
Of all our problems
Of decrepit electricity
Of poisoned water
Of polluted environment
Of dilapidated hospitals
Of benighted schools

Bloody vultures
In the postcolony
In independent Ghana
Vultures of the postcolony
Worse than white imperialists
Vultures in flight
Soaring higher in theft
Scouting downwards
Beaks daggers-drawn
Claws deadly-poised
Preying on debts
Praying for debts
Judgment-debts
Praying for 10 percent
Vultures in flight
Looking for prey
In judgment debts
Preying on citizens
Praying for judgment
Pen-armed robbers
They prey on the state
They prey on citizens
Ah! Judgment debts
They prey on it all
Praying for 10 percent
Preying on judgment debts

Pen-armed robbers
Vultures of the postcolony
They prey on the state
They prey on state lands
They prey on state cars
They prey on state hotels
They prey on state factories
They prey on state tractors
They prey on state bungalows

The pen-armed robbers
The watershed of it all
Of all our problems
The pen-armed robbers
Worse than the white predators
Worse than the white colonizers
Our moment of excellence
Our national independence
From the white predators
Is their monument of greed
The pen-armed robbers
Their monumental thievery
Monumental incompetence
Greed is our independence
Greed brandished by the elites

The educated elites
The new imperialists
In the garb of woolen suits
Primeval tie to their throats
Our politicians
Our leaders
Our judges
Our chiefs/kings
Killers of the dream

Freedom will come
One day it will come
We shall arise
To reclaim dignity
The liberation of old
The theology of Tigare
The ontology of Akonedi
True true decolonization
It will rise like the wind
The wind that never sets

*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 All 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.