Ace highlife musician and two-time presidential contender of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, has rated very low the performance of Bice Osei Kuffour, also known as Obour, whose tenure of office as MUSIGA president ends this year.
Based on Ambolley’s assessment, Obour’s presidency the past eight years did not add anything substantial to the musicians’ union.
Speaking to Nana Kojo Addo on TV3’s prime time news,News 360, on Wednesday, April 10, the Bend Down Low composer awarded Obour a below average mark of 20 per cent, emphasizing “out of 10, I will give him 2”.
Justifying his assessment, Ambolley observed that even though Obour is said to have brought some vibrancy and dynamism through initiatives like Ghana Music Week, he did not see how those things worked in favour of the Union.
“I do not see any success come out of all these things that you have made mention of,” he replied the entertainment segment presenter, who had drawn his attention to some of the things Obour did while in office.
Ambolley argued the GH¢2 million that the Government of Ghana set aside for MUSIGA in the 2012 budget for the development of the creative arts industry was big enough to transform the union but according to him, nothing came out of it.
Then Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, in his presentation of the 2012 budget on November 16, 2011 announced that government had set aside GH¢2 million for MUSIGA for the development of the creative arts industry.
Since the amount was allocated, the MUSIGA president, Obour, was hit with series of allegations of misappropriation.
Obour eventually opened up on the matter in a media interview and the money was used to conduct a comprehensive research of the Ghana music industry.
But that did not seem to go down well with some people in the industry, including Ambolley, who is not quite certain if he will join the race for the third time as Obour exits.
Meanwhile, the boss of Lynx Entertainment, Richie Mensah, and 1st Vice President of the Union, Bessa Simons, have already declared their intentions to take over from Obour.
Watch full interview here:
Source: 3news.com|Ghana