I'm fed up with politics - Barima Sidney

Political satirist cum musician Sidney Ofori, known in showbiz as Barima Sidney has told NEWS-ONE he has lost interest in doing political satires.

"People hate me for what I do and even that hatred to destroy my commercial investments. Political satire is allowed in any advanced multi-party democracy but in Ghana it has cost me a fortune and brought me hatred. I think we have not reached there as a country because we can't take a joke without getting angry, we can't make fun and laugh at ourselves, we can't tolerate divergent views, and we tend to be overly partisan. I am just fed up with this whole idea and want to do thing else," Sidney told NEWS-ONE.

The musician said because recent song, 'Donkomi', a senior political figure at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Arts recently acted very rude towards him in public and treated him as someone who had a highly contagious disease.

Sidney noted further “I felt very sad and it dawned on me that if I was not doing satire and I was doing my normal music, I would not be facing some of the problems am facing now. They hated me for 'Enko yie', Gadindingadem’, 'Bye-Bye' and now 'Donkomi'.

They have blacklisted all the songs but they can't give any reason so they just ignore me like a bad boy. My brother, I would stop the satire and we would all be doing 'Shatta Wale' because that is what Ghana is ready for.

They think because I sing about hardship I am working for NPP or I am against the government or I am insulting the President.

What would I gain from insulting the President? It is very sad people think this way and treat me with enmity."

Barima said what made his plight pathetic was that while he was accused of doing the bidding of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the party neither recognized not appreciated his works.

"If I was doing this for the NPP I would have charged them for it but not a single person in the NPP has even called me to say, take this for your recording or take that for your videos. No, not one!

Each time my song gets blacklisted; it is my few media friends who show some sympathy. The NPP people claim I am working for, does not give a hoot. They won't even call to say anything.

I use my own resources and gain nothing from it because the songs get blacklisted with no one telling me anything. It started with GTV and now even the private stations have joined. It is very frustrating and I am sure that 2014 would see me doing something very different.

I did not start as a satirist and when I was doing Nananom, I was even better off," Sidney noted.