Legendary Ghanaian artist, Amandzeba Nat Brew, has come out hard against Ghanaians and our penchant for elevating foreigners ahead of our own stars.
The long-held notion of ‘support your own’ is what Amandzeba is promoting here, that Ghanaians must support other Ghanaians, especially those in the arts regardless of the quality of output.
Veteran Ghanaian Musician Amandzeba Nat Brew has registered his displeasure in relation to the way and manner most of the foreign embassies in the country deny entertainers visas to go about their businesses outside the country.
He said it is an unfortunate development that people who act as cultural ambassadors for the country will be treated this way.
GhanaCelebrities.Com learnt from a source close to veteran ‘wogbej3k3’ hit maker, Amandzeba – formerly Nat Brew, that, the latter had an offer from the NDC government to become the Deputy Minister for Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs but he declined.
For confirmation, GhanaCelebrities.Com contacted Amandzeba. “First and foremost, our late ex-President, John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills, is my direct uncle. So having that affiliation (political) and also being a respected art savvy, he gave me that offer. So yes, I once had the offer from the NDC government to be the Deputy Minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs.
Asked why he declined the offer, he continued: “Well, I am still a performing artiste. Today I’m performing on this stage, the next day, I’m on another stage. As you know, the ministry also organizes cultural events from time to time.
I did not want to involve myself in any circumstance whereby people will see the Deputy Minister of the ministry performing for an event organized by the same ministry; they might start unnecessary controversies. People might ask: ‘why did the minister select himself as one of the performers for the event. You know Ghanaians and the way we talk.”
In brief, GhanaCelebrities.Com deduces from Amandzeba’s reason: he did not want to commit what is technically called conflict of interest. Thus, manning a ministry as Deputy Minister and at the same time, select himself as one of the performers for a cultural event the same ministry organizes.
Watch a video of Amandzeba Below:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjrcPMHtN5M
For many years now critics in Ghana’s showbiz have been crying to successive governments to support the creative art industry. Some even posited that one of the means of getting the governments attention is if players in the creative art industry, gets appointments into public office or political appointments.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Amandzeba had the chance but blew it. Those art-people who had the privilege of entering into political leadership, failed the creative art abysmally; as they could not lobby their way out for policies to be formulated and implemented for the arts industry.
The Ghana Music Award Festival is the biggest event on the Ghanaian entertainment calendar which aims among other things to recognize and celebrate the hard work and dedication of the various players in Ghana’s growing music industry through a coveted Awards Scheme.
Preparations for this year’s event began in October 2011 with a series of intensive Technical Review sessions that sought to overhaul the entire awards scheme as parts of efforts to revamp the scheme when the new partnership with Vodafone was announced.
The entire scheme was reviewed by a Technical Review Team consisting of a cross section of seasoned industry practitioners and executives who spent several days deliberating on ways to uplift and revamp the scheme. The full outcome of the review exercise will be presented to the media next week.
