Nana Adwoa Entsuah-Hagan writes: My Christmas without Kofi Kinaata

The 2022 edition of the Made in Tadi Concert, an annual Christmas jam in Takoradi in the Western Region, is not taking place this year. Sad!

The “Made in Tadi Concert” is a massive crowd-pulling entertainment show put together by popular musician and native of Effiakuma, Kofi Kinaata.

The event is not just about entertainment, but a series of educational activities herald it. Those activities have impacted many positively in the region and beyond.

Why was the concert cancelled this year?

The explanation is simple – there is no suitable venue for the event this year. Really?

That the historic twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi, or even the whole Western Region, cannot boast of an entertainment center that can accommodate at least a thousand people?

The Oil City of Ghana? This is a major cause for concern and the city authorities, traditional and opinion leaders as well as stakeholders in the entertainment space must sit up.

In case you are wondering what has happened to the original venue – the Takoradi Jubilee Park – which hosted at least the first and second concerts, the local authorities have turned the commemorative site into a vibrant market.

“We did not get a venue. Jubilee Park is now a market; it’s now a temporary market because of the current state of the Market Circle,” Ghanaian musician and songwriter Martin King Arthur, popularly known as, Kofi Kinaata said on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (21 December).

How?

When COVID-19 reared its ugly head and we started putting in place the necessary measures to avoid the spread, the first thought that came to the minds of the city managers was to decongest the iconic Takoradi Market Circle and relocate some of the traders to the Jubilee Park to avoid the spread of the virus, which was good anyway. It was also to pave the way for the redevelopment of the old market.

Thus, Jubilee Park was no longer an option as a venue for Kofi Kinaata to show appreciation to his fans in Takoradi, who have stood with him from the beginning of his craft.

I am convinced that the Apremdu Market, which is about two kilometers from Jubilee Park and hasn’t been fully utilised since its construction about two decades ago, should have been given the spotlight by sending traders there until the completion of the Market Circle, which is currently underway and nearing completion.

Several attempts to make the Apremdu Market attractive to traders, particularly hawkers, traders without shops or stalls at the Market Circle selling their wares on pavements, and other trade groupings such as dealers in used clothes, to relocate to the then Apremdo Market failed.

This became a tug of war between the late Col Kaku Korsah, the then chief executive of STMA, and Gladys Asmah, the former MP for Takoradi, with the latter supporting the traders not to move on the grounds that the new market lacked certain amenities.

The traders have since taken an entrenched position not to move.

Gradually, as time passed, the Apremdo Market saw some patronage with the arrival of lorry stations, while a few traders also moved in. However, some lost their capital due to low patronage and were compelled to go back to the Market Circle.

The Jubilee Parks were originally constructed to celebrate national events such as Farmers’ Day as was witnessed in the Eastern Region this December. But in the case of the Sekondi-Takoradi park, it has been reduced to selling ‘kaako’ and charcoal.

The next suitable venue for events, and in this case, the Made in Tadi Concert, would have been the Takoradi Technical University (TTU Park), which in fact came in handy last year, but the university needs change and is developing the park for its intended purpose, a sports complex.

So that leaves us with no other venue or place to put up a homemade show where people get to enjoy quality performances from Ghana’s A-list musicians,  including Tadi’s finest, the Effia Kuma boy himself, and Kinaata, all on one stage.

This year we might not get to see most of our “anchor” boys wearing blonde or golden hair on the Christmas day outing. The city has failed its people; the fact that the STMA does not have a venue for such an event is disappointing to say the least, and it is bad for the city’s image.

In the 1990s, Takoradi had the PWD Park and the frontage of the then Princess Cinema, which hosted massive political rallies and served as a covering point for other roadside events that could have easily hosted the “Made in Tadi Concert.” I recall the first-ever Western carnival hosted by Skyy Power FM, a local radio station.

The PWD Park, which used to be part of the Casolina Belt, is gone. It was for soccer and other sporting events. The youth were robbed of a place to play gutter-to-gutter football, while adults could not hold funerals but block roads in the city after the stretch was sold to private developers by the managers of the city around 2010.

All of these bring to mind the Western Region’s cultural center, which has become a white elephant after how many years of construction; I wonder if it will ever be completed, and if so, how many more years should we wait to use it?

It’s just sad that they and even we, the people of the Western Region, keep deceiving ourselves that the best comes from us, and yet we have nothing to show for what we give out—or worse, what’s taken from us.

Mining, legal or illegal, is claiming our lands, and we are losing our rivers and water bodies. What is being done about this?

We can’t boast of a traditional university, but without the conversion of polytechnics into universities, the upgrade of teacher and nursing training schools into tertiary institutions, and the establishment of campuses of other universities, there would have been nothing like a center for higher learning in our part of the country. I am sure the issue of venue would have come up again.

For me, this should be looked at with the aim of correcting it; it’s about time the twin cities got a modern recreational center where even kids can have some fun. Someone once mentioned this to me, and I honestly did not give it much attention, but the news that the show that brings the whole of Takoradi and its environs to a standstill is not coming on this Christmas struck a chord in me.

Now that our Ankos or masquerading festival is growing, it gets better each year.

It has moved from the days when we just ran out of our compounds as the trumpet sounded to catch a glimpse of the beautiful display and quality dance moves to becoming a very important social event that is gradually introducing Tadi to the world.

Has anyone considered “tourism in it”? If so, we should consider a proper venue for this event; the pushing, closing, and blocking of major roads, leaving human and vehicular traffic in their wake, should soon be over by creating a special space for some of these events.

Kofi Kinnata’s “Made in Tadi Concert” should come off next year, 2023, and every other year. I will be proud to attend for the very first time, God willing, next year.

In Ghana, December is all about Tadi, just as Kwahus have Easter, Kumasi has its funeral title, which is for weekends, and Accra is for everyday fun.

Let’s not lose this spot, until the oil find, Tadi is said to be a jamming location.

Let’s create spaces for fun in Tadi; it’s very important.

By Nana Adjoa Entsuah-Hagan
#TADI IS MY HOME

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