BET Awards 2012 “Best International Act” winner Sarkodie, has stated that late President of Ghana, Prof. Atta Mills was using a technique that had never been used in governance in our political history to rule Ghana, so he was criticized because Ghanaians didn’t understand his style.
Sarkodie revealed this in his first live radio interview in Ghana, after he won the BET Award with Chairman General Kwami Sefa Kayi, on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” morning show.
The “Baby” rapper, who was paying tribute to the late President, said he was on tour in Toronto Canada when news of President Mills’ death broke, and it was a very big blow to him. Even though he said he doesn’t follow politics in Ghana, he thinks Ghanaians did not understand Atta Mills and what he wanted to do as he Sarkodie watched from afar.
“Personally from afar, what I could see is that may be Ghanaians didn’t understand him and what he wanted to do, but I couldn’t speak for him. I think Mr. Mills was trying to start from scratch because a lot of things had happened and I think there are pot-holes somewhere we need to fix in our governance system. I saw that he wanted to start everything with a good heart and in the best way, and that is through God.”
He said a lot of leaders do not take God serious when they get power but Atta Mills put God first in everything he did, and the only thing he needed was time. Sarkodie emphasized that President Mills was trying to make Ghanaians understand that this is the only way we can move forward.
The reigning Ghana Music Awards “Artiste of the year” said, he had an ambition of standing for the high office as President of Ghana in the near future, but he has resented his dream due to the way late President Atta Mills was criticized, mocked and lambasted in the media, while he was alive as President.
“I wanted to stand for the position of a President in Ghana for people to vote for me but as I look at the pressure, I have changed my mind. I think it is hectic”.
He said the pressure was too much for President Mills because being a public figure he (Sarkodie) can put himself in Mills’ shoes and imagine what he was going through. “When I watched the President and how his name was mentioned several times in the media I thought it hurts, with my little experience as a public person. For me, I never had the chance to meet him but from afar I didn’t see him as a President, I saw him as my father”.
“Obidiponbidi” as some of his friends called him confessed that he was worried about some lyrics he used about Atta Mills in two of his songs; the Political song he released after the 2008 election and a new single titled “Issues”, in which he made certain funny comments on Atta Mills.
Asked why he has not composed any song of tribute for our late President, Sarkodie said his inspiration for creating a song is very personal and it takes time. “If I rush to the studio now to do a song for Mills because everybody is doing it, I might say things I don’t really mean and just put some rhymes together. But I want to do it from my heart, and it can even take a year. If I take my time the song I release will last forever rather than do a disposable song which will only be played today and forgotten tomorrow”.
He said, that was why he had to round up everything he was doing outside the country to come back to Ghana and personally pay tribute to him. “That is why I came myself to pay tribute. I am speaking to Ghanaians that this is coming from me”.
Commenting on why his award was not presented to him on stage, Sarkodie stressed that he was very surprised why people were talking about that instead of celebrating something that, has never happened in the history of Ghana. “I don’t think it was that much of a point for people to pay attention to that because I am the third or fourth person to win this from Africa, and nobody has been on stage so I don’t see why mine is something different”.
He said he respects the organizers for doing that, because they are trying to educate us in Africa to cherish our own stars and put them above stars from other countries. “There is no way America will give you that space, but there have been similar situations in Ghana where I was billed to perform, but I couldn’t even get a chair to sit on at back stage, and yet somebody from without gets that space in Ghana”.
The fastest rapper said America is America because they don’t allow people into it just like that. So any little change they give any foreign star, they feel they are doing you a favour. Sarkodie won the “Best International Act-Africa” at the 2012 BET award as a shared award winner with Nigerian sensation Wizkid.
Sarkodie thanked his family, all Ghanaians, his fans all over the world, and thanked Kwami Sefa Kayi and the entire Ghanaian media for supporting him. For him, this is just the beginning because the sky is the limit.
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Sarkodie in the middle of his interview with Safa Kayi
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Sarkodie and Kwami Sefa Kayi
Sarkodie finally meets his biggest fan Chairman General Kwami Sefa Kayi
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Alex, Vanessa, Eugene, Chris and Adepa of Peacefmonline.com with Sarkodie
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