The leadership of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) says it was not responsible for the supposed GH₵100 donation made at the funeral of gospel singer Maame Tiwaa of Asomafo fame a few weeks ago.
Speaking to Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM, the President of the Union, Bessa Simons, and Second Vice President, Abena Ruthy, clarified that MUSIGA was not represented at the funeral.
According to them, Maame Tiwaa, like her music partner Yaw Sarpong, was not a member of MUSIGA in good standing. They stressed that the donation made at the funeral did not come from MUSIGA but from a different group, which included one of MUSIGA’s key leaders.
“The representation that did the donation wasn’t MUSIGA. The thing is, a lot of us in the industry play multiple roles. For example, I am Second Vice President for MUSIGA, I am President for Women in Gospel Music. If I stand somewhere and someone is introducing me, the person might introduce me with both titles. So that is exactly what happened in this case.
The Chairperson for Ashanti Region MUSIGA, Augustina Addison, is the financial secretary or so for Legendary Musicians. Maame Tiwaa was part of the group so they went to do that asiedie for their member. Now the MC, seeing Madam Addison from MUSIGA, decided to introduce her as such and went ahead to say that the donation was from Legendary Musicians,” Abena Ruthy narrated.
She noted that some people relied on only a portion of a video that went viral on the internet in drawing conclusions.
Meanwhile, they indicated that MUSIGA, on humanitarian grounds, offers support in various ways to musicians who may not be members or are not in good standing.
They explained that, as musicians, they sometimes attend such funerals to show solidarity without necessarily being bound by the union’s welfare and insurance obligations.
“We get people coming to us. The last one that happened, a young man came to us and said his dad was dead and that he wanted MUSIGA to play a role in the funeral,” she said.
According to Bessa Simons, although the deceased was not in their records as a registered member, MUSIGA assisted in securing a state-assisted funeral.
They added that when a MUSIGA member passes, the union donates not less than GH₵5,000.
MUSIGA also has pension and insurance schemes in place to support members in times of need, death, or incapacitation.
