Controversial Ghanaian artiste manager cum entertainment critic, Bullgod, has lashed out at the Creative Arts ministry over their funeral tourism initiative.
Speaking in an interview on TV3, Bullgod labelled as trash, the Tourism and Creative Arts minister, Dr. Mohammed Awal’s intentions to leverage on funerals to boot the economy.
"Even the tourism bit. What are they doing? Recently, we just saw the minister. What's the man's name? Mohammed. Talking trash. Do you know the purpose of funerals? Do you know why we do a three-day funeral? Then this minister says we should go and watch what? Kakum National Park?
“It is trash. It is senseless. We should be able to tell them all these things. The minister that spoke. We pay his transport. We pay his fuel, wherever he sleeps, we pay that, even the clothes on his back. That is not the time to go for an excursion. It's a very dumb idea,” he fumed.
Bullgod also directed his rants at the Director of Creative Arts at the National Commission on Culture, Socrates Safo, for blindly supporting the idea.
“You know, I don't understand what Socrates is still doing for the party. You know, there are times in life that you see stuff and you need to say it as it is. You don't become a slave for something that you know isn't the truth,” he averred.
Meanwhile, the popular artiste manager is the latest to join the list of celebrities who have disagreed with the idea.
The likes of Kennedy Agyapong, Afia Schwarzenegger, DKB, Victoria Lebene and others have kicked against the initiative.
Background
Earlier in an interview with UTV, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, said Ghanaians love funerals, and as such, it is a space for providing an opportunity for patrons to discover the various attractions scattered across the 16 regions of Ghana.
“Ghanaians love funerals and it is fertile ground for tourism. When there are funerals, people gather at places. What we want to do with the Ghana Tourism Authority, GTA, is that whenever there are funerals, we’ll also find tourist attractions in those areas where the funerals occur so that when they finish, [we can] bus those who attend the funerals to key tourist sites. We’re going to serve a lot of Ghanaian dishes at the funerals, Ghanaian drinks, sobolo [hibiscus tea] and co,” he said during an interview with UTV.
His statements have since caught the attention of countless netizens and have triggered discussions on social media.
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Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
Artiste Manager and pundit, Lawrence Nana Asiamah Hanson (Bullgod)