Alhaji Sidiku Buari, A Man Of Many Parts

Alhaji Sidiku Buari and Saida For many Ghanaians, the name Alhaji Sidiku Buari can be associated with nothing but music and video production. But if one took a trip to his plush residence at Dzorwulu in Accra and had a chat with him, one would get to know that he is a man of many parts. The Mirror did that recently and found out that he was a national athlete in the ?60s, an amteur American baseball player in the ?70s and a trained interior decorator.

Alhaji is the owner of the Sid Film Theatre and Sid Music Studios and was the owner of the defunct Funky Town Discotheque. He is currently the President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and boss of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA). He has won several awards in sports, music and film.

In 1988 he was honoured with an ECRAG award for his role in using the arts to raise funds for charity. In 1990, he was crowned the ECRAG Consistent Artiste of the Year and, in 2001, the Ghana Unity Foundation in UK honoured him for his pioneering role in video production.

His son, Malik Buari, is a soccer player in the English Premier League, plying his trade with Fulham Club and his daughter, Shaida Buari is the reigning beauty queen of Ghana, Miss Ghana 2002.

During the 1963 All Africa Games in Dakar, Senegal, he won a silver medal for Ghana?s athletics team. Shortly after returning to Ghana, the team participated in the West Africa Games in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he won gold in the 400 metres race.

?Before the 4x400m race in which I participated, Nigeria was leading Ghana by one point and the Nigerians were waiting patiently for their quartet team to win the race for them to throw the country into wild celebration. But that did not materialise because we beat them to win three points in that race and became the over-all winners?, Alhaji recounted with nostalgia.

The victorious quartet included J. A. Addy, F. Q. Quartey, Owusu Mensah and Sidiku Buari. In 1965 Sidiku Buari represented Ghana at an athletic meeting in Congo Brazzaville where he won silver in the 400-metre dash.
He said he was also a top athlete during his school days and was bent on developing his talents to the national and international levels. ?So one day I went to the Accra Race Course where I saw some members of the national athletics team busily training?.

He said when he saw the athletes running around on the tracks he felt that he could beat many of them. One day, he said, he ran with them but did not overtake anybody. ?It was then that the coach, Mr David Cooper, spotted me and invited me for a meeting the following day. He said I should meet him at 3pm but I was on the field at about 1pm. I was very eager to hear what he had to tell me?.

Mr Cooper told young Sidiku that he had seen some potential in him and asked whether he would like to join his team for training. Sidiku readily agreed to join the team and Mr Cooper gave him a book on athletics to read to enable him to catch up with the rest of the team. And that marked the beginning of his sporting career.

?Ah! Alhaji, you have been talking so much about your sporting exploits ? were you ever in the classroom at all?? this writer asked.
?Oh, yes! I attended the Africa Primary School and later enrolled in the Government Boys (Middle) School at Korle Gonno. From the middle school I gained admission into the African College, Kokomlemle, Accra, for my secondary education.

The late Sports Administrator, Mr Ohene Djan, according to Sidiku, wanted him to enlist in either the police service or the military in order to make a decent living for himself but his mother, Amina Buari and uncle, Alhaji Alpha Buari, did not agree because they wanted him to further his education and become a top mechanical engineer. Sidiku lost his father, Malik Buari, when he
was in Form Three.

When Sidiku returned from the athletics meet in Congo Brazzaville in 1965, he travelled to the United States to further his education. He enrolled in the York Institute where he studied and obtained Diplomas in Business Administration and Interior decoration.

He said life in America was not easy but he was fortunate to get a scholarship because of his sporting activities.
?The York Institute had a baseball team and I was interested in playing the game so I went to their training grounds to watch them and sometimes had the opportunity to play around with the team. The coach saw that I could use both hands and thought that I could be useful to the team so he invited me to join the team, and I did?.

Initially, he said he had problems but when he began to compose victory and inspirational songs for the team, everybody began to like him. ?My songs were in Ghanaian languages and sometimes I just shouted some words in Ga or Hausa and everybody in the team was fired up.

?After a short while the African songs that my team used to sing became popular and one music manager, Irvin Mechanic, who had heard me shouting out some Ga words such as Odododiodioo, came to me and suggested that we should put more of such lyrics on records and add some rhythm to them to see if they would sell. We did and the Americans liked it?.

He therefore released his first album, titled Karam bani, which literally means self opinionated or ?too known?, in 1975. His manager struck a deal with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and the company bought the rights to market the album. He toured several American States to promote his works.

He has since released 15 more albums including Buari, Zama Lafia, Kuka Maraya, Nyanyo Kpakpa, Ayalolo, and Africa Responds to the World. In 1984 he returned to Ghana to establish the famous Funky Town Night Club and around the same time he organised a big concert to raise ?250,000 for charity.

He said the bitter experiences of a friend compelled him to compose the song Ayalolo. He later produced a video based on the story in the song. ?And that was the first commercial video production to be done in this country?, he pointed out.

He later produced more videos such as Ogboo parts One to four, Man-woman, Mr TT, Meba, Three Paddies and Who Is To Blame. He established the Sid Theatre to show his films as well as others. He also established the Sid Music Studio to produce his music and those of other singers.

Alhaji also formed a dance band called the SB Express Band that metamophorsed into the Buari Ensemble that discovered talents such as K. K. Kabobo and the master keyboardist Kofi Adu.

In 1990 Alhaji served on the executive board of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), which was chaired by Kofi Ghanaba. Two years later he was elevated to the vice presidential position during the reign of the late Joe Mensah. In 1999 he contested against his president, Joe Mensah, in an election and beat him with 77 to 11 votes to become the president. This year he was elected unopposed at a special congress held in Ho, to run a second term.

Today, Alhaji is a proud MUSIGA president because the union has a big permanent office housed in the former passport office in Accra. Musicians in the country now earn some royalties and it appears that the usual rumbles among musicians has died down a bit. He said he is working around the clock to institute an insurance scheme for musicians before he leaves office. Presently, MUSIGA has secretariats in all 10 regions of the country.

The 1940s-born filmmaker, musician, sportsman and businessman said he loves kids and will do anything he can to help kids, with whom he enjoys spending his leisure time. He said he is a happy man who has achieved everything that he set out to do.

He is a staunch muslim who believes that Allah is the source of joy and peace. Alhaji eats lots of vegetables, drinks plenty of water and exercises daily to keep fit. He is in his early 60s but full of life.