Minister commends moral standard of past musicians

Sunyani (B/A) July 10, GNA - Mr Yaw Adjei-Duffour, Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister on Wednesday commended the excellent moral standards set by musicians in the past and condemned some contemporary music, which he said rather encouraged indiscipline.

The early musicians gave Ghanaians and other Africans something to aim for by identifying what was best, the Deputy Minister said at the first congress of the Brong-Ahafo Regional branch of Musicians Union of Ghana at Sunyani.

The theme for the congress was: "MUSIGA, a chosen vessel for the fight against indiscipline in our society".

The Deputy Regional Minister mentioned the late Ephraim Amu, Agya Koo Nimo, E.K.Nyame as well as Obooba J.A. Adofo and Nana Ampadu and others as musicians of old, "whose exploits held out reasonable rewards for successful efforts in Ghana music composition and performance". "In those days, music was a metaphor for the way things worked in every aspect of society and musicians were admired not only for their talents, but for the work they put into developing that talent to benefit society".

Mr. Adjei-Duffour noted the drastic change in music in the country of late, which he said, had brought about more people to make music their full time employment.

He, however added that the stiff competition in the field was seriously affecting the quality of music produced as some rather encourage indiscipline in all forms.

The deputy Regional Minister cited a recent case when some women groups threatened to use legal means to stop FM radio stations from playing some types of music on the airwaves.

He urged the regional branch of the union to use the congress for self-examination to ensure that music produced by members conformed to the theme of the congress.

Mr Adjei-Duffuor complained about too much copying of songs by musicians, with almost the same words but different rhythms, noting that commercialisation in the industry was negatively affecting the quality of music cassettes on the market.

He noted that poor quality of audiocassettes used in recording songs, activities of pirates and lack of effective methods by the Musicians Association of Ghana to check these had hampered the industry's growth and expressed the hope that the union would use the congress to find solutions.

In elections supervised by officials of Electoral Commission, Mr. Kofi Agyemang of Sunyani-based "Life Seekers" Band of Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) fame was voted unopposed as Chairman. Mr. Ebenezer Ansah polled 22 votes against three votes collected by Mr. C.S.T. Amankwa, a popular musician based at Berekum, to become the vice chairman, while Mr. Samuel Aboagye defeated Mr. Isaac Owusu Poku by 18 votes against eight to become Secretary.

Mr. Benard Kyeremeh won unopposed as Financial Secretary, following a last-minute withdrawal of his opponent, Mr. Opoku Agyemang and, Mrs. Rebecca Agyeman, a member of "Life Seekers" Band was elected unopposed as Treasurer.

The rest were Mr. Prince Osei Johnson, owner of the first and only recording studio in Brong-Ahafo narrowly beat Mr. Agyei Fofie a.k.a. "Pozo Hayes" by 14 to 12 votes to become the Organising Secretary while Mr. Benjamin Adu Kesseh defeated Mr. Peter Amponsah 24 to two votes to emerge as the Welfare Officer.

Alhaji Sidiku Buari, National President of MUSIGA was present at the ceremony, which was presided by Mr. Johnny Amankonah, a businessman at Berekum and manufacturer of Pormaa Ventures medicine.