HARBINGER OF PAIN, WE CELEBRATE ONE THOUSAND

HARBINGER OF PAIN, WE CELEBRATE ONE THOUSAND

I picked the morning paper,
I balked at the news
Our northern dragon was cooking a sour brew
It had actually grown ten feet tall.
Casting a shadow over our neighbour’s wall.


Our northern dragon was brewing up a storm.
The women had fled with children on their backs
Onwards to our neighbour on the west
All roads lead Togo on the west.
Looks like it’s a free fight for all
Heads, arms and teeth lost in the brawl.
Sadly, common sense eludes us in the northern hall.


So much for your charades
So much for your cloak and dagger trick or treating.
Violence rears its ugly head over and over again
Go do fire fighting
That’s what you do best.


The next morning, I heard the news,
Calm restored to our country’s north.
Looks like the north enjoys living in the stone age
Back then it was survival of the fittest
No holes barred, all one had to was pack a punch.
All one had to do was deal some smack.


They claim conditions conducive
They claim a northern calm
They jibber jabber without the slightest bit of qualm.
Send out the buses into the yonder,
Go carry them from across the border
Keep reveling in your nine day wonder
Keep on politicking with a northern thunder.


They disagreed on numbers
They went on and quickly fiddled
With refugee numbers.
The refugees only number a thousand
And not three thousand, they hollered on the horn.
We did a head count, go tell BBC they got it wrong
We even employed DNA tests, body scanners and all.
Please open your eyes, do sit and ponder,
Pay rapt attention to the northern harbinger
Do not play hopscotch with the northern danger
Else you just might go on singe you fingers.


A thousand refugees, a million refugees,
Why should there be refugees?
Should we be happy because you discovered
Only a thousand Ghanaian refugees?
Should we be happy Ghana now has its own refugees?
Aren’t you worried they feel a need to seek refuge?
Can you not smell the simmering anger?
Please go on, tarry no longer.


You waste millions chasing a runaway train
Everyday we hear you go after the same old train
Choo chooo goes our northern train
Leaving in its trail mayhem and pain.
You hold meetings, you wear vague political appeals
You play to the gallery with so much ease.
You deploy troops in drudgery
Draped in fatigues as though you were some haberdashery
They then go about and indulge in all sorts of tomfoolery.
Please put away the paint and aesthetics
Instead, give the north some antibiotics.


Take a load off, look at the big picture
Take your political cap off
Try carrying a northern pitcher.
Be wise, try curtail a northern mishap.
Slowly the north drips like a tap,
Tarry and you’ll soon be knee deep in crap.
They engage in barbarism
And despicable acts.


I really do not condone these very acts
But for how long will you keep holding
Fanfares, durbars and comical parades?
Can you not see your performances below par?
Your curfews and interventions have failed so far
Yet you still cling doggedly to these ways,
Change your ways, vary your ways,
In so doing you just might make headway.


If you want the north be your Achilles heel,
I say go on and play to the gallery
Throw in a few shenanigans while you’re at it.
Go on and aim at making the seven o’clock news
Go on, keep up the manic charade.
A fire threatens from three houses away,
I pray you, do something better today
Else you’ll be sifting through cinders come tomorrow’s day
All you’ve achieved so far is chase your own tail
Be smart, go on, don’t be snail.