Musiga: A Divided House

The Greater Accra Regional Branch of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has decided to boycott the forthcoming national congress of the union, scheduled to take place on Friday, 7 February, 2003 at Ho.

The regional union accused the president Alhaji Sidiku-Buari of sidelining executive members of the union, abandoning the obligations of the national constitution of the union and illegally holding a national congress without the knowledge and consent of most of the national executives.

They alleged that for fear of losing his position as president of the union, Alhaji Sidiku-Buari, "connived with other members to change the venue for this year's congress so that he would be elected unopposed".

At an emergency meeting yesterday, organized by the executive of the Accra branch of MUSIGA, the musicians present, said constitutionally the president should have given a general account of his stewardship for the past four years, which is a condition before a national congress is held.

They said Alhaji Buari was not co-operating with the other national executive officers and "that is why most of them left the executive board, leading to the closure of some of these offices".

These officers, they said, include the National Vice President, National General Secretary, the National Treasurer and the National Welfare Officer.

The meeting led by the Chairman of Accra Union, Mr. Mac Tontoh, and his Vice Mr. Aboagye Asiamah with other senior musicians accused the National President of failing to demonstrate "transparency and accountability" for the past four years as the union's president.

About 38 union members were present at the meeting. They included, Obuoba J.A. Adofo, Abandziba Nat Brew, Charles Amoah, Amakye Dede, Captain Newman, Stan Plange, Kwadwo Aquai, K.K Yeboah, K.K Kaboobo, Randy Nunoo and Kekyere Kwame Appiah.

The members said inefficiency on the part of the National President has caused many of them to lose interest in the union.

The musicians told ADM that in their last congress they decided that the venue for this year's congress should be in Tamale but it was changed to Ho without their knowledge and without any accompanying reason.

They were also not made aware of members who have filed their candidatures for any position. They had also not been informed about the kind of persons who qualified to hold certain position and the criteria for nominating such people.

They accused the MUSIGA president for causing confusion within the executive body and warned that if Alhaji Sidiku-Buari is retained as the president of the union, things would go from bad to worse in the union. Some of them even threatened to cease being members of the union.

A leading member of the Accra Branch announced that, Ghana should have benefited from a US$ 15million facility the World Bank was giving to six selected African countries to boost their music industries, but because of disunity among Ghana's executives of MUSIGA, Ghana now stood the chance of losing the facility..

After a three hour exhaustive meeting, the Greater Accra Regional branch of MUSIGA resolved that, letters would be circulated round to all the regional unions, with a copy to the National President of MUSIGA about the decision taken by the Accra Branch.

They asked other members to be reasonable and should there be any congress this year, they should elect a new leader with foresight, a leader that would create cordial relations within and outside the executive body.

Harsh words, those. The Musicians Union of Ghana looks like a house badly divided.