As the only Ghanaian female artist to perform on the Global Citizen Festival stageat the Black Star Square last night, Gyakie did an incredible job representing the country and doing her part in being a contributing voice for global change.
The fast-rising singer started her performance with the reggae song Waka Waka off her recently released “My Diary” EP. An unlikely song intro to her performance, Gyakie delivered a fantastic live rendition of the song with the help of the Ghana Army regimental Band. At the same time, the Ghana flag and branded Gyakie flags were waved behind her: A statement of who she is and where she is from.
Fitting that she is referred to as Queen by people in the industry and her fans, Gyakie showed up on stage, resplendent in a bedazzled outfit by Eleanore, thrilling fans with “Far Away” and her hit single, “Forever” the remix, before ending with her current hit, “Something”.
Gyakie’s band, backing vocalists, and instrumentalists were testament to the fact that she has come a long way since her first performance as an artist, and the future is promising for what she is capable of in the coming years.
In a statement from the Songbird on stage, Gyakie revealed the source of her consistency, hard work and achievements were the young girls around the world, who look up to her. She said: “Before I do anything, I try to picture two or three girls that look up to me. I have their faces etched in my mind as a reminder of my responsibility to show up in a way that inspires them and lets them know they can be anything they want to be, no matter the odds against them.”
The Global Citizen Festival is the world’s longest-running global campaign calling for an end to extreme poverty. Through the Festival, the organization brings together millions of people to amplify the message to #EndPovertyNow and this year, in celebrating 10 Years of impacting change, the event was split into two locations:
Accra and New York with artists like Sza, Usher, Tems, Sarkodie, and Stonebwoy performing while dignitaries from around the world including his Excellency, President Akuffo-Addo delivered speeches calling for leaders and persons around the world to take action to #EndPovertyNow.
Samuel Bryan Buabeng, a presidential staffer believes the incident of September 24, 2022 when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was booed by some concert goers was the action of a few disappointed people.
He suggested that the president was certainly not going to lose sleep over the incident that occurred at the Global Citizen Festivalat the Black Star Square in Accra.
Buabeng went to Twitter to respond to a tweet by a social media influencer, Kalyjay, real name Joshua Boye-Doe, when the interaction went dirty with both parties trading insults.
The exchange which involved quoting tweets of each other in responding to the other went as below:
Kalyjay: If after all the boos he manage to sleep peacefully dier he no sheda care like that
Buabeng: You didn’t want him to sleep because of a few people who are disappointed? Forgetting the organizers brought the event here because of the hard work and how the same man has sold Ghana to the world? Next joke please!
Kalyjay: Herh, fa wo kwasia kor
Buabeng: Ofui! ɛnfa twitter popularity ho nkeka nkwasiasɛm. Aboa!
The influencer has since blocked the presidential staffer from seeing his tweets and by so doing interacting further with his views.
Exactly what happened?
Thousands of patrons were at the venue to witness the Global Citizen festival which had a number of local and international artistes performing.
As host of the event, the president was called upon to give his remarks, which happened to be a prepared speech that lasted over six minutes.
The booing happened when he started his speech saying: “The whole world is in Ghana today.”
What started initially as people showing their disapproval of his presence on the stage, turned into loud clapping and chanting of the words: “away, away…,” the president, however, stayed the course and delivered his full speech.
As if that was not enough, people on social media latched on to the development to mock the president.
Mohammed Fatahia, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) deputy women’s organizer for the Savannah Region, has pleaded with the area’s women to have complete faith in the party since their support is essential to its survival.
She said that the government of President Akuffo-Addo places a strong emphasis on supporting women and has thus launched numerous social intervention programs, of which the Savannah Region is not exempt.
Mohammed Fatahia added that global crisis that has affected the whole including Ghana slowed down the activities of women support but assured her women folks to continuously support the party since there is a lot in the pipeline for the empowerment of women in the region.
Miss Mohammed Fatahia in an exclusive interview with Bole based Nkilgi FM urged women in the Savannah Region to be committed and stay behind the NPP government, which she noted, has introduced tangible social intervention programmes to mitigate the effects of any difficulties that affected Ghanaians.
“Women are the sufferers when the economy is not doing well, and that remaining solidly behind the NPP government is a guarantee for better standard of living,†she added.
She said plans are far advanced to support women financially in the region to boost their businesses and also train them to take up entrepreneurial roles.
John Jinapor, a former deputy minister for power, energy, and petroleum and current member of parliament for Yapei-Kwasagu, has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo not to place blame for his mistakes on others.
“The least President Akuffo-Addo can do is recognize the accomplishments of his predecessor, who failed to provide portable drinking water for his own people while serving as a minister and a member of parliament before President Mahama did so for the residents of Kyebi.
I implore President Akuffo-Addo to check his facts before making falsified, unsupported, and fabricated claims in the future in an attempt to mislead the populace “.
In a post on Facebook Mr Jinapor said: “Ghanaians are indeed suffering under the abysmal performance of the Nana/Bawumia government and the least they can expect from this non-performing government is to be truthful and honest with the facts”.
Read the full post below:
EXPOSING THE FABRICATIONS OF A NON-PERFORMING GOVERNMENT
During the recent visit of President Akuffo-Addo to the Savannah Region, the chiefs of the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency sought to enquire from the President when he will fulfill his campaign promises of creating a new district out of the Central Gonja District and the establishment of a new Senior High school in the Kusawgu area.
In response, President Akuffo-Addo rather chose to throw wild and flippant allegations against me, Hon John Jinapor, for what he described as my inability to connect some 17 communities to the national electricity grid. As if that was not enough, he proceeded to accuse me of not helping to establish the Senior High school that he, President Akuffo-Addo promised.
For the record, when I was appointed the Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency had only 4 towns connected to the national grid (i.e. Buipe, Yapei, Sankpala and Kusawgu).
By dint of hardwork, the constituency currently has about 100 communities connected to the national grid as part of an aggressive national electrification programme under the NDC Government.
So Mr. President, if we have only 17 towns yet to be connected to the national grid, the critical question you should answer is what have you done so far to complement what you inherited? You cannot be sleeping on the job and blame others for your own failures.
More importantly, at the national level, the NDC Government expanded access to electricity from 50% to 83.24%. This can be confirmed in Paragraph 463 of the 2017 budget as presented by Mr. Ken Ofori-Attah, the Finance Minister: “ *Under rural electrification, 1,212 communities were connected to the national grid increasing the national electricity access rate from 80.5 percent to 83.24 percentâ€.
President Akuffo-Addo since assuming office and despite receiving over 20 billion Cedis in ESLA Revenues, has only increased the access rate by a paltry 3%—thus from 83.24% to 86.63% as captured under Paragraph 810 of the 2022 budget: “ *In pursuit of H.E. The President’s aspiration to achieve universal coverage of electricity by 2024, a total of 162 communities were connected to the national grid thereby increasing the national electricity access rate from 85.17 percent in 2020 to 86.63 percent in 2021.
On the education front, President Mahama can be credited for 3 senior high schools ( Buipe Senior High, Buipe Technical and Mpaha Senior High) in the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency.
It is an undeniable fact that the NDC government under the leadership of President Mahama, the Yapei-Kusawgu witnessed the commencement and commissioning of the Buipe Cement Factory and the Sheanut Processing factory not to mention the ultramodern Buipe District Hospital. Unfortunately, under President Akuffo-Addo, the Sheanut factory has been grossly mismanaged and run-down for some time now. No wonder he conveniently refused to visit Buipe, the district capital of the Central Gonja District.
For someone who failed to provide portable drinking water for his own people as Minister and MP, untill President Mahama provided portable water for the people of Kyebi, the least President Akuffo-Addo can do is to acknowledge the good works of his predecessor.
I wish to entreat President Akuffo-Addo to crosscheck his facts in the future before seeking to deceive the citizenry with concocted, unsubstantiated and fabricated allegations.
Ghanaians are indeed suffering under the abysmal performance of the Nana/Bawumia government and the least they can expect from this non-performing government is to be truthful and honest with the facts.
John Abdulai Jinapor
Former Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum
26th August 2022