Presidential candidate, Akere Muna says he will not forget about the Cameroon music industry should he win the forthcoming October 7 presidential elections.
In the past, Makossa and Bikutsi music genres were the order of the day but with coming of the urban music, urban musicians could say they benefit little or nothing from the government when it comes to grants and other national recognition. Instead, we still have old musicians called up at the Ministry of Arts and Culture to collect aid and other financial benefits for their contributions to music.
In a recent radio interview with Sweet FM, Douala, Mr. Muna did not only acknowledge the growth of the urban music industry in the country but he told radio hosts, Eva Ndoumbe and Steve Bernard Fonkam that he plans to bring in heavy investors into the arts and sports sectors.
It’s true that the music industry is growing and Cameroonian artists are now getting international recognitions and are participating at foreign music festivals but its a shame that back home, they are neither recognized by the country’s Arts and Culture ministry nor opportuned to organize or participate at national music festivals, (because there are almost none annually)
When asked about his plans for the music industry in our country, here’s what the presidential candidate explained:
“I have a simple principle in politics and monopoly in place… the people have to be the central part of your concern. Whatever policy you do, the people have to be central. If its sports, these sports men have to be at the centre. If its music, musicians have to be at the center of it. We have a country which has an endemic problem with corruption and its in every sector. It has screwed up the country upside down and things are very bad.
“So, if you don’t reinstitute the fact that the music is managed by those who are concerned by it, the management of the money is by those who are concerned by it and the government only intervenes to protect those who practice sports, music, etc then we are getting nowhere.
“I am the coordinator of the Muna’s Foundation and we have a studio and we help artists who can go in there and record for free. So I think the idea is to make the space. We have amazing artists, writers, singers, actors… It is a sector in life where excellence prevails. That’s the good thing about arts and sports. You have to be good to prevail.
“If you are in a country where merit doesn’t mean a thing then you don’t get anywhere. In this country where I’m gonna fix, I’m gonna make sure that artists who are good really prevailed. I’m gonna force the economic operators to accompany and accommodate the cultural world. It will change. Its gonna change and change bad.”
Dcoders, what do you think?
