Creative Artists Root For Nana.

Socrate Safo, a movie producer, has said the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government does not have the needed ideas to develop the creative arts industry.

According to him, the NDC hurriedly created the Creative Arts Ministry, which is the brainchild of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in the heat of the 2012 election campaign but said President Mahama’s administration has messed up the laudable idea.

Lack of Commitment

“We believe it is due to the lack of true commitment to the ideas and ideals as proposed and promoted by the originator,” Socrate Safo said in a news release on Saturday on behalf of a group calling itself ‘Creative Arts for Change’, of which he is Co-Convener.

The group said as a result, they were vigorously campaigning for Nana Akufo-Addo to become President so that the flagbearer’s good intentions for the sector would be fulfilled.

They said “Creative arts professionals over the years have taken note of the fact that governments, political parties and politicians have taken the industry for granted. There has been little or no effort to develop it with any public policy.”

Nana’s Difference

“In 2012 this seemed to change when the then flagbearer and leader of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made a difference when he invited creative arts professionals and gave them an audience to express their needs. He was not only interested in our music and videos for advertising his campaign,” he said.

“As part of the manifesto of his party, he held a public event at which he stated the first-ever in-depth public policy proposal for governance if he were elected,” he said, adding, “while he was declared not to have won the elections, he set the stage for his opponents, including the NDC, to pay attention to our industry.”

Historic Decision

Creative Arts for Change said that “the effect of this historic decision by Nana Akufo-Addo to positively affect the destiny of our industry caused the NDC government of Mr Mahama to institute a Creative Arts Ministry,” adding, “this has not made the impact it should have.”

“In that year we created the Creative Arts for Change to organise support for Nana Akufo-Addo. We gave our commitment and subsequently worked for and voted for Nana Akufo-Addo,” the group added.

Pledge

“We, the Creative Arts for Change membership still believe in the policies and intended legacy Nana Akufo-Addo seeks to achieve for us. For this, we are still committed to his success.

“Creative Arts for Change seeks to continue to encourage Nana Akufo-Addo to stay on the course of becoming president to implement the proposed policies that we believe will benefit our industry. We in turn pledge our commitment to strive towards his success,” the group pledged.

Source: Daily Guide.