Former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bice ‘Obour’ Osei Kuffour, has stated that it is worrying that the union’s elections have still not been held since he left office in August 2019.
According to Obour, MUSIGA is missing out on a lot of things, especially from the corporate world where it does most of its business because of its inability to elect new leadership.
“We do business with most of these corporate organisations and for us not to have had elections to elect a president, it does not speak well of the entire union.
“How does anyone take us seriously? We need to have the elections as soon as possible. Enough of the back and forth at the court,” Obour told the Graphic Showbiz in an interview recently.
Obour said the lack of elections does not bode well for MUSIGA because it fuels the doubts that musicians have.
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Asked what is being done to bring some closure to the situation, Obour said all past presidents have met on several occasions about the same issue and are taking measures to deal with it.
“Trust me, by June or July this year, MUSIGA election will be held and a new leader will finally be elected. One of the aspirants, Ras Levi Appiah Caleb, took MUSIGA to court and we asked for an out of court settlement.
“But we find ourselves back in court again because Ras is not okay with the answers he got. But we are so sure that by June or July this year, the elections will be held,” he said.
As elections have not been held to elect a president, as well as other leaders, Obour could have still been in office, enjoying all the benefits that came with the presidency but he says he stepped down because he is a noble man.
“So far as elections have not been held yet, I could still have been the president but because I am a noble man and I want transparency, I stepped down for the interim committee to select an acting president for MUSIGA who is Bessa Simons,” he said.
Elections for new MUSIGA executive members were to have been held in July 2019 but a presidential candidate, Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi got an Accra High Court to place an injunction on the polls, citing anomalies.
He claimed there should have been a voters’ register for each region but the Electoral Commission presented only one album which also had some names missing.
He also raised concerns about the registration of people, some of which were not musicians, beyond the deadline.
Although he agreed to settle the case out of court initially, Ras Levi took the case to court again last week.