NCCE PARTNERS MUSIGA IN ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN

As part of the Ghana Music Week (MSW) 2019 celebration, the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) in partnership with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) with support from STAR-Ghana Foundation has launched an Anti-Corruption Campaign to jointly fight against corruption in Ghana. The theme for the celebration is ‘The Role of MUSIGA in the Implementation of NACAP’.

The Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms. Josephine Nkrumah launched the Anti-Corruption song. She stated,” I see a movement rising where creative arts are taking their rightful place in nation-building”. She admonished everyone to be zealous in the fight against corruption to uproot the canker. She also said that it is important to educate children at various levels to know what corruption is and how to fight against it. NCCE would continue to partner with MUSIGA in this just course.

The launch was chaired by Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Head of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII). She spoke about how corruption affects the nation negatively. ‘We have so much that if we are using the resources very well, I’m sure we would be so developed.’ She also spoke about how music would go a long way to help the fight against corruption. According to her, a lot of people look up to musicians as their role models and would be interested in the campaign.

The President of MUSIGA, Mr. Bice Osei Kuffuor called upon his fellow artistes who are not on board the Anti-Corruption train to get onboard and join the others in the fight. He said, ‘we would achieve this through dialogues, civic education, songs and videos’. He outlined the activities MUSIGA would be organizing for the Anti-Corruption Campaign to include a walk in Kumasi on the 7^th March 2019 and in Accra on 10 ^th May 2019, a concert at the Royal House Chapel on 14^th March 2019. He stated that as musicians one of the corrupt practices they experience is piracy, “piola” and “soli” (giving money to a Disk Jockey (DJ) before he or she plays an artist’s song) that needed to be checked.

One of the main brains behind the campaign, Elorm Adabla also known as EL expressed excitement in the campaign becoming a reality and called on all artists in the music and movie industries to come together and join the fight against corruption. He spoke about the Anti-Corruption Campaign song he made with his fellow musicians Kwame Eugene, Okyeame Kwame

The second part of the programme was a stakeholder’s forum which gave in-depth knowledge on corruption and how to fight against it. It was facilitated by Mrs. Joyce Afutu Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs (CCA), NCCE and Mary Awelena Addah Programmes Director for GII.

Present at the workshop were celebrities including Elizabeth Tagoe of Tagoe Sisters fame, the 1^st Vice President of MUSIGA, Mr. Bessa Simons, 2^nd Vice President of MUSIGA, Dr. Thomas Yawson, President of Ghana Actors Guild (GAG), Sammy Fiscian, President of Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), Augustine Abbey, Bob Smith Jnr, Oscar Provencal and Ziggy Netteyson.