The creative arts industry has advocated massively for the president, Nana Akuffo Addo to consider the appointment of industry persons as ministers of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts in his second term of office.
This
comes after the president, relieved all his ministerial appointees of their
duties, pending the appointment of new ones and a re-composition of his new
government. This is accordance with section 14(5) of the Presidential
Transition Act, Act 845 of 2012.
Some
of the names that have popped up for the position are; Mark Okraku Mantey, President
of the Creative Arts Council, Akwasi Agyeman, CEO of the Ghana Tourism
Authority and Socrate Safo, Ghanaian director, filmmaker, and Director for
Creative Arts at the National Commission on Culture (NCC).
According
to them, the Creative Arts Ministry could well be managed by people within
creative art instead of being handled by ordinary politicians who do not wield
much knowledge on the sector.
Over
the years, the afore mentioned names have played active role and contributed a
lot to the success of the Creative Arts Industry through various roles and
capacities.
However,
Mustapha Nii-okai Inusah, a Ghanaian celebrity journalist and CEO of Attractive
Media says it is very unlikely for the president to appoint people from the
creative arts industry considering the fact that most of the names suggested
are not politically exposed.
The
president “will not like to risk appointing political “wanabees” who may fail
to impress during vetting. Considering the fact that most of the names
suggested are not properly exposed politically, the president may not want to
embarrass himself and bring his sense of judgment into disrepute”, he said.
He
added that, over the years appointments has been limited to members of
parliament and “people who are active and long-standing members of a political
party, unlike the case of most people within the creative arts who are still
not too experienced in politics and actively involved in the day-to-day affairs
of the ruling New Patriotic Party”.
According
to Mustapha, the numerous names popping up and competition from different
quarters with regards to who deserves it and who does not, seem like a “battle
for supremacy is not healthy because it renders the appointing authorities a
tangible reason to continue appointing their preferred politicians who do not
necessarily possess the technical know-how for the effective running of the
sector”.
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