If nothing is done to stop the current plot to politicize music performances at the forthcoming 2014 Imo Carnival, it will turn to another event that will destroy the dignity of Imo artistes.
On Wednesday, August 27, 2014, the chairman of the planning committee, Mr. Paddy Obinna addressed a group who go by the name, Association of Imo Musical Artistes [AIMA] telling them to queue into the campaign programmes of His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha as the only way to succeed and the group who were responding like zombies had no clue on what it takes to be a musician in 2014.
We also learnt that the pioneer members of the group are mostly those who received One Hundred Thousand Naira [N100,000] each for doing jingles for Gov. Okorocha recently and they are charging Three Thousand Naira [N3,000] for fresh artistes to register with them saying that they are the only authentic music body in the state and without them, no one will perform at the forthcoming carnival.
The leaders of the association who stood beside Mr. Paddy Obinna are people whom no one had ever heard of in the history of music in the state, they are people who do not have a single song in the library of any radio or TV station in state, people who are out to do whatever it takes get money from the government even if it means throwing away their dignity as musicians.
Now I know why anyone would ever say that Imo artistes are ‘never do wells’.
How can people struggle to pay money to perform in their own land? Why must Imo State have clueless leaders all the time and why must we always have advisers who does not have a single idea of the game?
What value will singing for the governor add to Imo artistes? What is the sense in singing songs that will be meaningless after the election? Praise singing needs no talent, it needs one to kill his visions and bend towards the darkness of saying that white is black just to get paid.
With this Paddy and IAMA collaboration, spectators at the carnival will end up seeing the worst of Imo artistes because the best who are focused on the direction to succeed will never settle for praise singing.
What he is trying to achieve shows how desperate he is to deliver for the governor on his side, making the man in Douglas House believe that Imo artistes are in support of his programmes. The truth is that the real artistes are not happy. The people who fly the flag of Imo State as artistes are never recognized here because people like Paddy Obinna would never want to deal with such people who know their full rights and worth as artistes.
If care is not taken, the protest by a group contemporary artistes in the state against the carnival which was cancelled earlier will still hold any day the carnival comes alive because there is no way people from outside the state will be treated like kings in Imo while the indigenes will be treated like worthless never do wells in their own state.
This neglect Mr Paddy Obinna is supporting should end. If he wants to speak for Imo artistes, let him understand that he was once a painter, who cried out loud because painters were never appreciated in the state. Maka na agbacha oso a guo mile.
