SARKODIE SUPPORTS FELLOW MUSICIAN WHO IS ACCUSING AKUFO-ADDO’S GOVERNMENT OF USING HIS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ILLEGALLY

Award-winning Ghanaian Rapper Sarkodie has thrown his support for a fellow musician who is accusing President Akufo-Addo and the Presidency of using his intellectual property for commercial purposes with his consent.

Ghanaian musician, Kirani Ayat, has reacted to a post Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made accusing the president of using graphical excerpts in his music video to promote his tourism agenda.

On September 27, 2022, a video was shared on Twitter by the President of Ghana to promote tourism in the country and welcome expatriates into the country.

The video caption read, “Beneath the deep blue sky, the Black Star is calling. Follow the stars and let them take you on a journey of our people. I invite everyone to the country at the centre of the world.”

In a tweet that highlighted the tweet, Kirani Ayat said the president had used his video without consulting him. According to Ayat, this was after the Ministry failed to heed his [Kirani Ayat] plea to use the song ‘GUDA’ to endorse tourism in the North.

“The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission,” he shared.

After the disclosure by the artiste, some concerned citizens have taken up the issue to address it with the hopes that the president will give the artiste the needed decorum for using his property nd one of such persons is Rapper Sarkodie.

The BET awards winning Rapper took to Twitter to express his concerns on the matter.

“We ( creatives ) do a lot to put our country out there , attracting a lot of tourists x investors that translates to money to help nation building yet that’s one sector with no support… I feel my brother and support him especially if he actually reached out and didn’t get help”, Sarkodie tweeted.

Ghana Tourism Authority issued a statement explaining that an agency employed by government to produce the said documentary and according the agency the said song was acquired and used legitimately.

However, musician, Kirani Ayat has responded to Ghana Tourism Authority’s statement insisting that no agency contacted him before using his creative materials.

“In response to the Ghana Tourism Authority statement. I would like to state I and ONLY I (Kirani Ayat) owns the rights to the GUDA video. No agency has ANY rights or have been granted any rights to use my video for the visit Ghana Ad campaign. Thank you”, Ayat stated.

Source: NKONKONSA.com