Celebrated Ghanaian gospel musician, Minister Ike has taken an uproarious swipe at the Deputy Minister of Tourism,Culture and Creative Arts Mark Okraku-Mantey
According to Minister Ike who is currently based in Canada, Mr Okraku-Mantey as the Deputy Minister of Tourism,Culture and Creative Arts has failed the gospel musicians.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on Hot 93.9FM’s ‘Rush Hour’ show hosted by Okyerefour, Minister Ike who was answering a question in line with the challenges gospel artists are currently facing said:
“Now the industry is in crisis…Things are not going well…Now you produce a song; you spend so much but no returns …Those times we were making money from selling CDs , launching of the songs, but now things have changed …Now you need more than GHC10,000 for just a video”. He told Okyerefour
“Now it’s mostly about making money from shows and with the shows how many gospel artists get the privilege to mount most of the big stages? It’s only the secular musicians benefiting”. He added
Before becoming the deputy Minister of Tourism,Culture and Creative Arts, Mark Okraku-Mantey as the founder and chief executive officer of Slip Mark Entertainment had worked with several Ghanaian musicians including Lord Kenya, Adane Best, Okuraseni Samuel ,Kumi Guitar, Oheneba Kissi, Daasebre Gyamenah and Akyeame.
Sounding extremely disdained, Minister Ike who revealing how the problem can be solved accused Mark Okraku-Mantey of failing the gospel musicians:
“I will apportion all the blame on Mark Okraku Mantey …You(Mark Okraku Mantey)have been with musicians so as the deputy creative arts Minister, I was expecting him to use his influence to help us(Gospel Musicians) but only the secular musicians are benefitting from him…in fact Mark Okraku Mantey has failed the gospel artists”.
Minister Ike, is out with his debut single track for 2022 dubbed ‘Only God’. After bagging several international awards with his “Me Nyame” and “Onyame Gya” hit songs, Minister Ike has so far won three awards with the newest single track ‘Only God’ this year.
Watch excerpts of the interview below