Kwame Agyemang Berko, a renowned poet and tour artiste manager, has waded into the current impasse raging amongst the current executives of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).
Kwame, who in the past managed Tinny, Obrafuor, Becca and Afriyie Wutah, expressed his angst at what he described as ‘the mess’ being created in the musicians’ union.
Speaking to the issue on Joy FM’s ‘Showbiz A-Z’, he said” the current state of affairs at the foremost art/musicians welfare body stinks. Lives of the aged musicians and careers of upcoming artists are at stake whenever this reoccurring event of power struggle rears its head during the election of National officers. Why?”
He added that currently, Nigerian musician Mr Eazi’s emPawa Africa crusade, headquartered in Accra, employs and pay salaries of a workforce that numbers more than what the entire Music Union has on payroll.
He noted that it was unfortunate that a whole union like MUSIGA could not put its house in order to make the lives of its members better.
“If we ourselves do not stem this tide of the mess, and quickly, the Union stands the risk of extinction. A-List artists have always found it unattractive and reluctant to join the Union. This current state further alienates it and we’d all be none the wiser at the end of the day” he concluded.
The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has in the past few months been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
After postponing its national elections on two occasions, they had to put a hold to it due to a court injunction requested by a Presidential aspirant Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi.
According to the Ras Caleb, the voter’s register was fraught with inaccuracies and requested that those anomalies were rectified before the election could be held.
What seems to have broken the camel’s back is the appointment of the 1st Vice President of the union, Bessa Simons (also a Presidential candidate) as the Acting President of the association.
This was done when President Bice Osei Kuffour handed over power on the basis that his tenure has expired.
In the meantime, Ras Caleb has registered his displeasure about the act and has called it “unconstitutional.”
