Anomic Season: Kufour Proves He is not a Politician

“Former President Kufour has expressed dismay at attacks on him by some NPP supporters over his insistence on attending the inaugural ceremony of president-elect John Dramani Mahama. According to him, attending the ceremony will never be a stab in the back of his party, the New Patriotic Party, but rather taking responsibility as a statesman. However… Kufuor… said he will attend the ceremony in his capacity as a former President of the country but some party supporters are vehemently opposed to it. But, speaking exclusively on Asempa FM's Ekosii Sen on Friday… Kufuor noted that he is attending the inauguration ceremony because he was invited as a former leader of the country, and not a politician” (Ghanaweb, January 4, 2013).

In the season of anomy
The vulture has claimed the carcass
As his beloved diet
Kufour will attend the Inauguration
Like the raindrop in the dry season
Produces balminess
But that dries up with rapidity
They say Kufour is a politician
Kufour says he is not a politician
Ah! These anomic seasons

Oh! Ah! Today
Delirious foes
Pretending to be friends
Soaring with inclusivity
Like vultures soaring over a carcass
In our sterile seasons
Of democracy
Of traumatic histories
Of seasons of thievery
Of seasons of benightedness
Of seasons of poverty
Of seasons of “tribal” hegemonies
Of seasons of anomy
They lured him
The crumpled the NPP giant

Oh! Ah! Today
J. A. Kufour
The giant of the NPP
Rose up like a crumpled man
A man without principles
A man with pedagogic vanity
Proclaimed his STATESMANSHIP
In shallow intellectual armory
In grandiose, but vacuous speech
In false heroic narrative
In elegiac vague terms
Tragic convenient truths
Pivoting betrayal
Pivoting passivity
Pivoting disloyalty
Pivoting irresponsibility
Pivoting deceitful declarations

Oh! Ah! Yesterday
Kufour
The NDC vilified him
The Othiefour thief
The Asante “tribalist”
The “baboon” of Kejetia
The most corrupt leader
But in the season of anomy
With their predictive poise
The nation-wrecker
In the season of anomy
Disillusion turns into disbelief
Kufour has been hailed
Proclaimed
By delirious foes
With clinical detachment
Hailed
They are hailing Kufour
Praised
Acclaimed
In the season of anomy
Has become the vulture
The vulture has claimed the carcass
As his beloved diet

Today
Like a raindrop in the dry season
They called him caring
Brave, intelligent, wise
Peace-maker
Ah! Yesterday
They hounded him
Asante “monkey”
“Baboon with red eyes”
Wicked giant
Mumu Kufour
Hotel Kufour
Whose office invaded by NDC
Today he found a new home
Dry patch of ground
Like a raindrop in the dry season
Hailed, admired

In the season of anomy
The vulture has claimed the carcass
As his beloved diet
Kufour will attend the Inauguration
Like the raindrop in the dry season
Produces balminess
But dries up with rapidity
They say Kufour is a politician
Kufour says he is not a politician
Ah! These anomic seasons

*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 [email protected] 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.