After reading Nii Laryea Korley’s article, “What killed Acquai?” in last weeks edition of the paper, I was bemused and seethed with rage at the content of the article.
My qualm is why Ghanaians love to attribute personalities’ death, especially a celebrity to someone, some superstition and frustrations in the music industry.
I couldn’t believe the comments I read from prominent musicians like Carlos Sakyi, Rex Omar and Charles Amoah - that the man died as a result of frustrations with the copyright protection system, royalties and what have you. How?
These gentlemen have been fighting a good cause, but to use someone’s death to garner attention about copyright is unacceptable. People raised questions to who killed Terry Bonchaka and Suzzie Williams when they died through tragic motor accidents.
A million people have passed on through motor accidents but when these talented personalities died, other celebrities in the fields of music and movies were accused.
There were indications and medical reports that showed that Mufti Dabre died due to ill-health, yet, people muttered that he was a killed by a jealous guy whose girlfriend was being courted by Mufti.
Bishop Michael Osei Bonsu was sick for almost a year and it was reported that the ace gospel musician died through cancer - but then, some unscrupulous people are incriminating Pastor Love, just because he passed a cursing word in a verbal argument.
Everyone has said unwholesome things in the heat of anger and regretted later, so people should leave Pastor Love alone.
The article by Nii Laryea Korley suggested that the man died of an acute heart failure induced by his lingering high blood pressure, and that should be it, Don’t blame it on some copyright discrepancies.
There may have been a thousand and one reasons why Khodjo Acquai had high blood pressure and beside that, where is the medical report depicting that the man succumbed to death as a result of copyright problems?
I am sorry, but Khodjo Acquai was not the only musician who went through frustrations in the copyright setup.
If that be the case, then many musicians should be complaining about high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems among others.
Admittedly there are serious problems with the Copyright Society which needs to be addressed and the likes of Carlos Sakyi are doing us a good job, but the right channels must be used to address these problems.
It’s about time Ghanaians accepted the fact that we are all destined to die and that when somebody goes, it is God who has called him/her, and definitely not because of all the repugnant reasons we assign to their deaths.
If you think you have unequivocal facts to prove that a celebrity was killed by someone or something, please show it, otherwise, let’s all accept a celebrity’s passing and move on. Rest in peace, Khodjo Acquai.
