Sidiku Buari Calls For Unity Among Music Stakeholders

The former president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Alhaji Sidiku Buari, who served eight years as MUSIGA president, has declared that there is the need for the stakeholders in the music industry in Ghana to put their differences aside and form a united front to fight for the pressing needs of the industry. Alhaji Sidiku Buari urged stakeholders in the music industry to learn to accommodate and tolerate each other and try to eschew personality clashes that have existed in the music industry for so many years. Alhaji Sidiku, who was once chairman of COSGA Oversight Committee, said Ghanaian musicians had a lot to gain if they worked together as a team to move the industry forward, adding that team work would help the music industry to grow and would also help the musicians to realize the fruits of their labour. Speaking to BEATWAVES in an exclusive interview in Accra, Alhaji Sidiku Buari, who is the also former vice president of the Federation of International Musicians (FIM), noted that some of the many other ways in which MUSIGA and Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO) could help musicians and composers include organizing workshops, showcases, having other exclusive tailor-made benefit packages that include health and instrument insurance, credit unions, discounts on musical accessories, travel and much more. The former MUSIGA president appealed to MUSIGA and GHAMRO to work as a team to promote Ghanaian music, culture and tradition to the outside world. He explained that Ghanaians could not do away with their culture and music, which formed basic guidelines in their day-to-day activities. Alhaji Sidiku Buari again advised the GHAMRO management team to practise an open-door policy to enable the views and concerns of the stakeholders to be taken into account before any decision was taken. He also advised that MUSIGA should work tirelessly to protect and promote the image of the Ghana music industry to attract additional investment into the music sector. He said the leadership of MUSIGA should initiate programmes to guarantee regular incomes for the members, apart from the annual royalties they received from the collective society. He also said that music was a potential revenue earner with many job creation opportunities, but because of lack of focus and effective structures to enhance the development and promotion of the Ghanaian music, coupled with a divided front, potential investors with the ability to drive the industry were also shying away. Sidiku Buari stressed that musicians offered far better branding of the nation than official emissaries posted to represent the nation in foreign lands. He called on the government to put in place a programme that would occasionally send a crop of Ghanaian musicians to go and perform abroad for the Ghanaian community and outsiders in general. He also called for a united musician’s body; a tool which he said would aid and promote their well-being. The former president of MUSIGA urged the union to create a situation where musicians and other intellectuals would reap the full benefits of their efforts in the system. He advised MUSIGA to create a situation where musicians and other intellectuals would reap the full benefits of their efforts in the system. He noted that the days that musicians dwelt on popularity, but wallowed in poverty were over, adding that MUSIGA should work closely with all the stakeholders to create jobs for the musicians. He appealed to the union to chart a new path to develop musicians and other collaborators to send Ghanaian music to the international market. According to him, it would also encourage its members to compose songs that would promote national unity and tolerance. On the issue of piracy, the former MUSIGA president hinted that technology had made piracy very easy and simple, and the pirates were taking advantage of it. He further stressed that in order to calm piracy down, MUSIGA and GHAMRO should train some personnel within the two associations to monitor the activities of music pirates who were infringing on the rights of music owners. He said the members of the GHAMRO board should also see themselves as stewards who were taking care of each other’s precious properties and for that matter should bring their activities unto the door steps of stakeholders to avoid speculations and suspicion. He urged GHAMRO to draw outreach programmes to educate the people on piracy, which, according to him, was killing the music industry, adding that stakeholders should exhibit transparency in their activities. He said the level of piracy in Ghana was high, effectively preventing the emergence of Ghanaian creativity. The former MUSIGA President said creativity remained an unappreciated and underexploited resource in Ghana and Africa. Alhaji Sidiku Buari appealed to the record companies to invest in Ghanaian musicians, saying there were many talents in Ghana who could match any around the world. He noted that difficulty in enforcing laws against piracy of music in Ghana was a serious canker, adding that pirated versions of creative works covered at least 60 percent of the market and in West Africa, the figure could be as high as 90 percent. Alhaji Sidiku declared that lack of enforcement of copyright laws had empowered the pirates, who are better organised and more successful than the victims. In most African countries, he said, the ineffective enforcement of copyright laws had led to a host of other unintended consequences including pushing the production of African music out of the continent. For example, in the late 1980s, most legitimate music businesses in Ghana, including production houses and record factories, were shut down due to competition from pirates. Sidiku Buari stressed that promoting Ghanaian culture would attract tourists who would be prepared to pay money to know more about Ghanaian music and culture. According to him, there was a lot to be done with respect to helping Ghanaian musicians make ends meet, and that needed the support of everybody including MUSIGA and GHAMRO. Sidiku who is one of Ghana’s seasoned music icons came into the limelight with the release of his first album titled ‘Karam Bani’ in 1975 which won him a contract with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and the company bought the rights to market the album. He toured several American States to promote his works. He has over 15 albums to his credit.