Mad rush for NPP

Finally, the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has stated that it will not hold anything against its members who openly campaign for political parties of their choice.

This statement came in the wake of an emerging phenomenon where many celebrated musicians are virtually lining up to declare their support for Nana Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Prior to yesterday’s announcement by MUSIGA President Diana Hopeson that “there is no law in the MUSIGA constitution banning any musician from joining a political party of his or her choice”, the list of musicians and celebrities, who had announced their decision to campaign for the NPP flagbearer kept growing on a daily basis.

Celebrated hiplife artiste and political satirist, Kwame Asare Obeng, popularly known as A-Plus, yesterday told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that he would join the ace highlife musician Charles Kwadwo Fosu, aka Daddy Lumba to call on their fans to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo during the December polls.

A-Plus explained that he would be calling on his fans to vote for Nana Addo because he believed the latter was “a man who was born with a golden spoon, yet fought for people who were not born with even wooden spoons so that they might get at least bronze spoons.

“I believe Nana Addo is the best person to move Ghana forward into a modern state with a modern economy; he loves Ghana and believes in Ghana, else he had no business going out there on a ‘kumepreko’ demonstration for the ordinary Ghanaian,” A-Plus noted.

Highlife legend, Nana Kwame Ampadu, an Executive Member of MUSIGA, had also announced that God had told him in a vision that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the December presidential elections, and thus called on his fans to vote for the NPP.

Nana Ampadu was reported to have presented to the NPP a song he had composed for their campaign. The party was however yet to officially adopt the song.

Already, Daddy Lumba has collaborated with Shelter Force, a music group, to compose and arrange an eight-track campaign-album for Nana Addo and he would be joining the party’s campaign train in the Northern region this week.

Lumba has already shot video clips for some of the tracks on the campaign-album dubbed, ‘Ye re ko ye nim’ which is an Akan translation of the NPP’s ‘We are moving forward’ slogan.

Sensational Gospel musician, Phillipa Baafi had also entered into an agreement with the NPP for the party to adopt and use her ‘Go High’ track as their official song for the 2008 elections.

Many hiplife artistes including Castro, Wutah, Praye, 4×4, Screw Face and others had in recent times mounted NPP campaign platforms to solicit votes for Nana Akufo-Addo.

Good-old Amakye Dede, the highlife genius, had not been left out of the Nana Addo campaign.

He was at the recently held NPP fund-raising banquet where he did beautiful renditions of his highlife tunes, dragging Nana Addo to the dance floor as part of a fund-raising gimmick.

Diana Hopeson yesterday told Citi Fm that there was nothing wrong with the development because “music and politics go hand-in-hand and you can not have a political campaign without music.

“Our songs have been used over the years during political campaigns and there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, they can contract people to even compose for them; but in doing these duties, the musician should know how to handle such issues.

“The union itself is non-partisan and we do not tread on people’s rights so our members can do what is best for them so far as it does not hamper their career; we have no problem with it at all,” the MUSIGA President explained.

When DAILY GUIDE asked A-Plus if his fans who did not support the NPP would not be angered by the fact that he was campaigning for the NPP, he said he was least bothered about that.

“I have said this before and I am going to repeat it; issues like this do not come up for discussions in civilized societies like America where people go from film actors to governors.

“In America, Opra Winfrey did not only stand on stage with Barrack Obama to endorse him but also gave him $25 million to push his campaign.

“When we compare ourselves to America then people say we have not reached there yet, but when it comes to dressing like Americans, then we say we have reached there.

“We dress to expose our panties and all that in the name of copying America but when it comes to serious issues of deciding who should be given the mandate to govern us, then we say we have not reached there.

“I would be calling on all my fans to vote for Nana Akufo Addo to win the elections because he is the best person for Ghana,” A-Plus noted.

Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE’s market survey has uncovered that there is mad rush for NPP’s paraphernalia in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.

These paraphernalia included miniature flags, key holders, cups, wall clocks and stickers among others.

These souvenirs which were being sold by hawkers, were found in almost every nook and cranny of the Garden City, especially Adum which is the central business district of the metropolis.

When the paper visited Adum on Wednesday afternoon, the smallest among the miniature flags was being sold at GH¢1, while a key-holder was being purchased at 50 Ghana pesewas.

On the same stretch, a sticker, depending on its size, was being offered for sale between 10 and 20 pesewas.

Kwesi Manu, a 12-year-old trader told the paper that though the paraphernalia of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) abound on the market, people were not buying them.

On the contrary the poor school boy who had to do petty trading because of financial constraints indicated that people were buying the NPP paraphernalia like nobody’s business.

“Since morning I haven’t sold any of the NDC supplies but without much stress I have sold more than 20 of the ruling party’s and I’m hoping to sell more by evening time,” he noted.

“Life has been good since I started selling these souvenirs because now I make a little money everyday,” he happily pointed out.

Kwesi Manu revealed to DAILY GUIDE that commercial and private drivers as well as ordinary people on the street were the people who patronised these paraphernalia.

He said a number of white foreigners had come to him to purchase some of the NPP paraphernalia, particularly the miniature flags and key holders.

“I didn’t understand why all the white people who came to me bought only NPP paraphernalia, so I asked one of them who told me that it was because of the sparkling nature of the ruling party’s colours,” he noted.

Kwesi Manu who disclosed that he was introduced to the thriving business by a friend, disclosed that he and his colleagues go for their daily supplies from a certain lady in Adum who was believed to be importing the stuff from China.

“Because my colleagues and I do not have money to buy the items straight away from the lady, we sell the supplies on commission basis,” he indicated.

A good number of taxis, private cars and other commercial vehicle drivers in the metropolis had all hoisted the flag of NPP on their vehicles to underscore their affiliation with the ruling party.