The executives of arts-based pressure group, Federation Of Concerned Arts Professionals (FOCAP) is extremely angry at Nollywood actor Osita Iheme for his comments that Ghana should not pass a law which would demand work permit from foreign entertainers.
The Nigerian actor speaking to Kwame Buckman on Accra-based Top FM opined that foreign entertainers who travel to Ghana for work promote tourism, create jobs and increase the country’s GDP so demanding extra cash from them will prevent them from applying their trade here.
This comment the leaders of FOCAP, Kojo Preko Dankwa and Mel Kwesi Davis have described as bogus. The two who were peeved after listening to the actor popularly called Pawpaw on the station stated that the actor’s suggestion that Ghana should not demand cash from foreigners before they work here because Nigeria has no law to that effect does not make sense. According to them, the government has been crying of cash to develop the country but allow entertainers from other countries work here without paying a dime which is wrong.
To them, countries like U.K, U.S.A, South Africa have laws which demand that foreign nationals pay cash when they are traveling there for work. They added that Ghanaian musicians and actors who travel outside the country present their work permits before they are allowed to execute their duties as entertainers so it will be beneficial for same to apply in Ghana.
Kojo Preko and Mel said they were surprised to hear the Nigeria actor defend his stands because he, Pawpaw travels to U.K, U.S.A and other countries outside Africa with his work permit anytime he is there for a job so should not have made such utterance.
The Federation Of Concerned Arts Professionals (FOCAP) in a press statement released days back pleaded with the government of Ghana to make a law which will request work permit from foreign entertainers who travel to Ghana for work.