Liberian founder and Presidential Candidate for the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) Party, Mr. George Oppong Weah has confirmed the cancellation of Ghanaian musician, Barima Sydney’s trip to Liberia to shoot the video to the Ebola campaign theme song earlier scheduled for today, Sunday, August 31, 2014.
In an interview with the UN-Weah Project leader, Mr. George Oppong Weah confirmed the news to GhanaWeb.com; “Yes, it is true that Sydney’s trip to Liberia scheduled today has been postponed due to the demise of Sydney’s aunt, Madam Gladys Akua Boaduwaa, he has to be home to see to the family and there were flight issues as well.”
He indicated that with the level of technology development in the world, “Sydney does not have to travel necessarily from Ghana to Liberia for the shoot of the video; he can still be in Ghana and the same video can be shot basing emphatically on its concept and there would be no problem.”
“With technology now, the major scenes which is to be shot in Liberia will be shoot and then the France-based production team would come to Ghana and shoot Sydney’s role in the video, have it edited perfectly, and then the video will be complete and aired,” he added.
According to Mr. Weah, the video which cannot be shot without Barima Sydney but “due to the demise of his family member and also issues with the flight hence, the contemplating means to have the video to the deadly virus, Ebola campaign song shot for this noble course.”
Mr. George Oppong Weah when asked about the support of Ghana’s government, said, “the Ghanaian government has always in different ways supported projects that involve Liberia be it a football or music project, and the entire campaign on the deadly virus has been well embraced.”
Addressing reasons behind the choose of the Ghanaian musician over Liberian musicians, he said, “not that Liberian musicians are not good, they are talented but I think to broaden the musical contribution across Africa; I felt he was best to record the campaign song to help create the awareness on the Ebola crisis and he was willing to add his voice to the campaign.”
Meanwhile, Barima Sydney who was at Akwatia in the Eastern Region for the funeral of his deceased aunt, Madam Gladys Akua Boaduwaa during the weekend has expressed his disappointment on the sudden development on his trip to Liberia which from Genesis has had controversies surrounding the shot of the video.
The campaign theme song for the UN-Weah Ebola project titled, ‘Ebola; Africa must stand and fight together’ recorded under the cover of Lionel Peterson’s ‘Peace’ song has been aired on BBC and other international platforms.
Although there has been no confirmation to any political affiliation pertaining to the sudden development of the cancellation of the musician’s trip to Liberia and the contemplating on the means to shoot the video to the Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) campaign song.
GhanaWeb.com will update its readers on new developments on the issue.
Listen to the campaign theme song below:
