Ghanaian Entertainment Critic and Artiste Manager, Enoch Agyapong has asserted that politicians in Ghana do not take the creative arts industry seriously.
According to him, politicians only make mention of the creative industry in their manifesto for the fun of it.
He made these assertions while contributing to the Ayekoo After Drive’s discussion on the New Patriotic Party’s creative arts promises.
“Any government that doesn’t see that the creative arts is very important to the state, shows that the government is not a serious government. If they are not taking us seriously then they are not serious.
Everything that happens in the country depends on the arts, especially music and movies. To sell your country, you need music and movies. So indirectly, the arts come first.
So if you just want to add us to your campaign promises without fulfilling them, it will go against you”.
Speaking on the NPP’s promise of a studio for the industry, Enoch expressed cynicism in the fulfillment of this promise as he argued that the NPP promised theatres in their 2016 manifesto but was unable to fulfill its promise. “They have not been able to fulfill their 2016 promises and with what they have added shows that they are not taking us seriously “,he added.
He was of the view that “whoever is advising them [NPP] has lost touch with the industry”.
In 2016, the NPP promised to pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi. The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Dr Ziblim Iddi, in September 2018, revealed in an interview with an Accra-based radio station that the government will not be able to fulfil its campaign promises to the creative arts sector by 2020.
The next year, however, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated in his state of the nation address that “the Eastern regional theatre is being completed and work is currently ongoing towards the construction of the Kumasi Theatre”.
Ahead of the 2020 elections, there is the new promise of building music recording studios in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tema.