Music, Antidote For Disquet In The North

It was a memorable occasion for natives of the North, when they witnessed the first ever musical show, dubbed, ?Beacon of peace? to promote peace and unity.

The show which came off successfully last Saturday at the taxi rank in Tamale was an apparent declaration that music is the only antidote for disquiet in the region.

It attracted thousands of inhabitants, including those from the Abudu and Andani gates, who did not demonstrate any form of violence or confusion throughout the night.

Much security presence was thus not needed; there were only two police personnel to provide security. The event was one of the few in Ghana which needed such low security, yet ended successfully.

Notably, patrons treated each other with friendliness and love. This was demonstrated the more when some helped others who were suffocating in the large crowd to find their ways out to safety.

The atmosphere clearly indicated that the northern region was even more peaceful than the other regions of Ghana.

As early as 7:00PM before the show kick-started at 9 PM, the Tamale taxi rank was filled to capacity, as fans waited anxiously for artistes? arrival.

When the artistes arrived finally and the show started, the venue could hardly contain the fans, and movement on the adjacent main road was impeded by heavy traffic, both human and vehicular.

At the event itself, performance on performance by artistes saw middle aged men and women as well as children cheering loudly as they clapped and sang alongside artistes who mostly performed peaceful songs.

For the aged, the moment was a time to shed tears, having been reminded by lyrics of the artistes of the sad events that occurred in the area in times past.

When the fans forced the popular northern artiste, Sheriff Gali to perform a song titled, ?Politician?, it was a tumultuous affair.

No other artiste was allowed to perform till he had performed that song for them again.

Finally, when he returned to the stage, the crowd simply went amuck and wanted him to go on and on, but he had to give other musicians the chance to perform.

Climaxing their performances, all the artistes came together on stage and sang another peaceful song to further hammer the message of peace in the north as well as encourage development.

Some other artistes who performed were Mayopia, Malaika, Lord Wumpini, Sherifatu Gunu, Abu Mohammed, Nana Ayisha and Monkey No Fine.

Others were Memunatu Laadi, Tarim Bia, Mama Rams, George Cliff, Super Slam and many others.

Miskelly-Brock Smith also gave a message on peace which also received loud applauses and cheers from the peace- oriented crowd.

Hafred Security Services and Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), organisers of the concert extended their sincere gratitude to the office of the vice president which gave ?2million, Cocoa Cola Bottling Limited, and Emperor Travel and Tour limited for their support which made the peace program to bring northerners together a success.

According to Hafix Mohammed Abdullai, CEO of Hafred Security, his outfit was going to organise peace tours to Yendi, Bimbila and South Lugu, all in the North later in the year. He announced that for the sake of peace, he had changed his first name to Choggu, the name of his village.