Society Gists

The KORA All Africa Music Awards are given annually for musical achievement in sub-Saharan Africa. The Music Awards founded in 1994 by Ernest Adjovi, a Benin born businessman, has brought lots of smiles to icons in Africa’s music industry.

Since its inception, the award has had eleven successive outings in the continent. Despite these achievements it has been characterised with frequent postponements with variety of reasons given.

Recently, the Environment Ministry of Namibia commenced investigation into the relationship of the country’s Tourism board and Kora, following negative media reports about millions of dollars lost in the Kora awards saga and thousands given to an unregistered company owned by the parastatal’s chairperson.

According to namibian.com.na, In 2014, it reported that former NTB chairperson Erica Akuenje received a double payment for subsistence and travel on one trip. Akuenje received N$50 000.

it also reported that last year, current chairperson Paul Brinkmann’s company, Wild Africa Travel, received contracts worth N$680 000 from the NTB between June and December 2016 without them having being put out on public tender.

Wild Africa Travel received the contracts, even though it was only registered on 23 January 2017.

NTB also featured prominently in the media after paying N$24 million for the country to stage the Kora awards, an event that was scheduled to take place in March 2016.

Although the event never materialised, NTB never recovered the money, even after taking the matter to court.

Also in 2008, the organiser, Ernest Adjovi, struck a deal with the Cross River State Ministry of Culture and Tourism to stage the awards in Calabar before the annulment of Gov. Liyel Imoke’s election in 2008.

According to modernghana.com, he had already gotten an upfront of $2.5m but while the governor was up and about fighting to secure his mandate, Adjovi dumped the state for Lagos where he entered into a fresh deal. Again, he got an advance fee of $7.5m from the Lagos State Government and kept promising to bring down the heaven since 2008.

He was still to sort things out with the two states when advert of KORA Awards in Burkina Faso rented the air. He fled Nigeria to host KORA Awards in Mogadishu, Burkina Faso where P-Square was named the Artistes of the Year and ought to smile to the bank with cash prize of $1m. It was the same year Reggea artiste; King Wadada won in the gospel category.

Till now, not a dime had been given to the winners. Although the event in Burkina Faso may have been successful, modernghana.com reports that the government of the country is also alleged to be on his trail.