Feature Article of Friday, 1 June 2012Columnist: Mensema, Akadu N.*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The NDC government has handed over the Brong Ahafo University of Energy and Natural
Resource Management to the Vice Chancellor at a ceremony held at the premises of the
university on Thursday. This ostensibly means that academic work can commence in
earnest on the university. The University of Energy and Natural Resource Management
is one of two universities that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to
establish to complement the efforts of the public universities in the country. The
other university, known as the University of Health and Allied Sciences is being
established in the Volta Region” (Ghanaweb, May 25, 2012).

Ah! Education for what
When there are no facilities
When there are no buildings
When there are no teachers
When there are laboratories
When there are classrooms
When there are no libraries

Ah! Education for what
Hmm! For fatigued propaganda
Ah! Ghanaians held hostage
To grandiose schemes
To fetishization of greed
To patented chaos
Ah! Our seductive narratives
Of incompetence
Of vacuous speeches
Ah! Historicizing incompetence

Ah! NDC propaganda
Yes, all schools have beginnings
But schools are inspired by policy
Not perspired from propaganda

The NDC give it all
They gave Woyome 52 Million
The NDC give it all
They give one pesewa to education
The Great University of BA

The university is a paradise
Ah! The Old School of Forestry
Built by Kwame Nkrumah
Thanks to our gods
The P/NDC sold all
Sold factories
Sold hotels
Sold lands
Sold farms
Thanks to our gods
The NDC didn’t sell schools
They didn’t sell Nkrumah’s schools
Ah! BA has a university
Ah! Nkrumah’s School of Forestry

Ah! The Brong Ahafo University
The habit of a long lost forest
Now school of Energy
With a forlorn laboratory
Now school of Natural Resources
With a galamsey curricula
Ah! The NDC has done it again
Aging buildings as a new school
Aging desks into academic platform
Ah! All dilapidated in poise
Peeling-over paint that begs the sun
Windows that summon the wind
Corridors with footprints of neglect
Flowers potted in anemic glue

Ah! Education for what
When there are no facilities
When there are no buildings
When there are no teachers
When there are laboratories
When there are no classrooms
When there are no libraries

Ah! Education for what
Hmm! For fatigued propaganda
Ah! Ghanaians held hostage
To grandiose schemes
To fetishization of greed
To patented chaos
Ah! Our seductive narratives
Of incompetence
Of vacuous speeches
Ah! Historicizing incompetence

*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.