The act of hitting the streets and agitating against perceived wrongs in the all demonstrations is the in-thing now. In the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed, ‘Occupy Flagstaff house,’ seen the mammoth protest by the Trade Union organization (TUC) and the other one by disgruntled citizens in Kumasi.
A number of groups made up of musicians and other associates of music; are set to embark in what is expected to be an unprecedented demonstration exercise supposed to take place in Accra.
The demonstration, which is slated for Thursday, 14th August, 2014 is being organized by the Music Council of Ghana and will involve other groupings including the Veteran Musicians Association of Ghana (VEMAG), the Association of Music Rights Owners (AMRO), the Musicians and Dancers Association of Ghana (MYDAG), the Professional Musicians Association of Ghana (PROMAG) and Composers and Authors of Music Association of Ghana (CAMAG) among many others.
The musicians are demonstrating over a lot of issues including the formation of the Creative Industry Council by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Creative Arts to oversee activities within the Arts industry. They are also protesting strongly against the decision of the Court to stop the Carlos Sakyi administration from continuing their work at GHAMRO as well as other sensitive industry matters.
The Ghana Police Service has given the musicians the approval to proceed with the demonstration across the city on the new date after rejecting an earlier proposed date of 31st July, 2014. It has directed the protestors to use the traditionally approved routes from Kwame Nkrumah Avenue to Adabraka, to Farisco Traffic Lights to TUC and end up at the Hearts of Oat Park, where a representative from the presidency will receive their petition.