The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo is seeking a second term in office, having seen out his first four-term as the constitution prescribes. However, without recourse to prejudice, it’s evident that Nana Akufo Addo has failed abysmally and every rightful Ghanaian who is not wholly immersed in partisan politics will attest to this fact.
There are numerous reasons that readily come to mind as to why the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Nana Akufo Addo should be bundled out of power. In the meantime, the numerous promises he has failed to translate in to reality is the first reason as we have enumerated in a previous article.
As though that’s not enough, Nana Akufo Addo also failed to fulfill some key promises he made for the creative arts industry. Given that a lot of Ghanaian musicians and actors were the driving force for the NPP in the build-up to the 2016 election that largely swayed more votes for Nana Akufo Addo, musicians this time around won’t bother to vote for the President. If he had been able to do even half of what he promised the creative arts industry, the fortunes of musicians and other players in the creative arts industry would have greatly improved.
This ravaging Covid-19 has hit the industry with a jolt as musicians and actors always lament about how hard up they have become as a result of the global pandemic. For the mere fact that Nana Akufo Addo could not fulfil the following promises, we think Ghanaian musicians, actors and all those who fall within the arts bracket won’t vote for him in this year’s elections.
See the promises he failed to fulfil for them.
1. Pursue a deliberate marketing programme to promote our unique historical sites, flora and fauna, waterfalls and other cultural artefacts.
2. Take the staffing of these tourist sites and our hospitality industry as a whole seriously.
3. To improve professionalism in the sector, we will partner with the private sector to set up a state-of-the-art hospitality teaching facility, with an operational hotel, classrooms, kitchens, library, and dormitories.
4. Encourage local communities to take ownership and be invested in the sustainability of tourist attractions in their localities.
5. The NPP will champion a revenue-sharing programme to inject 5% of tourism revenues from fees of well-developed tourist attractions into local community projects.
6. Transform the Ghana Tourist Authority into a modern, efficient research and marketing institution with the necessary technical resources and funds to help project the image of Ghana as a globally-recognized tourism brand.
7. Reactivate and resource the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to function effectively as a repository of both our cultural and historical records.
8. Pursue an ecotourism policy that enables us make these sites available whilst protecting the ecosystem.
9. Invest in Tourism IT as an enabler, to improve knowledge and the sharing of information about tourism opportunities in the country.
10. The Culture Policy, developed and adopted under the Kufuor government, will be reviewed and actively implemented to give our culture pride of place in our national development.
11. We will build a detailed inventory of all our cultural assets, so the nation has a database of these assets.
12. The NPP will ensure that the provisions regarding the protection of Kente and Adinkra designs are strictly enforced against illicit exploitation by foreign interests.
13. We will establish a Creative Arts Fund.
14. The NPP will collaborate with the Chief Justice to create a Division of the High Court, focusing on the Creative Arts to deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights, complete with a dedicated enforcement unit.
15. The NPP will establish a Creative Arts Council to coordinate and harmonize the various interests and fragmented associations into a well-functioning body to protect the interests of members.
17. The NPP will collaborate with private sector interests to acquire the technology and equipment needed to log creative works, in order to determine true and deserved royalties.
18. We will pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi, as well as setting up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for the northern sector in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi.
SOURCE: www.Ghgossip.com
