‘Abiba’ hit maker Rex Omar, has disclosed his disgust over the management of the creative arts industry by successive governments in the country.
Rex, who was speaking on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z with George Quaye, did not shy away from speaking the blatant truth in terms of support fueled into the creative arts industry by present and past governments after the leadership of the very first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who he deems as the only one to have done something for the industry. He said, “Apart from Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who visibly, practically did something for you to see, successive governments have not done much in terms of infrastructure, in terms of policies that draw investments into our industry just like they invest in sports. They haven’t done such thing for the industry.”
“In fact, what Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah even created, they’ve sold it,” Omar added.
The highlife expo in his heated discussion on air, drew a comparison between the industry’s system in Ghana and that of other developed countries, tagging the creative sector as in a lead of their own. “Look at other developed countries, creatives are in the lead but when it comes to Ghana, nothing. We are getting to 30 million people, we have only one theater in Accra that takes 1,500 people. This was donated to us by Chinese, so on our own what theater have we built for ourselves?” he chimed.
Rex, within the space of his interview, acknowledged the presence of other sectors in the country worthy of government support, but did not see reason as to why they were preferred over them, while either has the potential of building the country. Omar noted in his comments, “The country called Ghana does not take the creative serious. If you saw me making political commentary or coming on the frontline politics, it’s because this is a sector of the economy that as a country, we have neglected completely and I just don’t understand. We are the same people who are building stadiums all over the place. It means, we have our preference, we are not developing the creative.”
Adding more fuel to the already burning fire, CEO of Charterhouse Mrs Theresa Ayoade, also questioned the measures government officials, who have come and gone ever put in place for the creative arts industry to see growth as against every region having a stadium in support of the preferred sector over the creative arts.
By: Larry Adams
