A former Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, is under fire from industry players and other concerned citizens of Bolga for the attempted character assassination of Frafra kologo artists Atimbila Gh on the radio.

In a radio interview in Bolga, Miss Abayage indicated that she wanted to help Atimbila and gave him a phone but could not continue to support him because of his lifestyle. “I met Atimbila at a program; he sang so well and I liked him. So I decided, ‘ why don’t I take such person and groom him up’. So he came to my office and said he didn’t have a phone, I gave him a phone. Once in a while, I gave him something small.” Madam Tangoba Abayage went on to make certain comments about Atimbila that are not deemed necessary repeating here.

However, her comments did not go well with everyone, including industry players and fans of Atimbila.  Speaking to My Bolga Online, Mr. West Gee, CEO of Westside Entertainment, indicated that he was sad to hear her utterances and wondered why she would go to the radio to disclose such things as a mother with children. “She had a show where she invited Atimbila to perform, and because she was happy with it, she said she would help him, but it never happened. Apart from a phone and the mere Ghc500 in a white envelope she gave to Atimbila for the show, I don’t know of any other help. Atimbila confirmed that he was at the hospital when he asked his friend’s wife to call her, but she did not give him anything.”

Mr. West Gee is therefore calling for a retraction and an apology from Madam Tangoba Abayage for slandering the artists and tarnishing the young man’s image. “She should apologise to Atimbila and the general public for her insensitive comments. She is a mother; if someone goes to the radio to talk about her children’s problems, will she be happy? I know her children very well; I won’t talk much, for now, she should humbly apologise; she is an important figure, and it is not a good look for her.”

Other fans of Atimbila took to Facebook to express their disappointment in Madam Tangoba Abayage’s comments. Atibila, an admin of My Bolga Online, took to Facebook to express his disappointment at the former regional minister.  “Dear Madam Tangoba Abayage (former Upper East Regional Minister), I’m very disappointed in you, (and angry at you) yes, that’s right. I don’t know your motivation for spewing this rubbish on the radio. I don’t know if that is supposed to bolster your political ambition, or you’re just being petty or ignorant of the effects of your uncalled-for character assassination of our much-beloved Atimbila Gh. Your attempted character assassination reminds me of the saying that some people do little and make noise about it while others do much and say nothing about it. I don’t know the level of support you have given to Atimbila Gh to warrant such public character assassination? What did Atimbila do to you? Why are you doing this to the young talented traditional musician? Why are you tarnishing his image? Why Madam? What do you want to achieve at all? It would have been better if you did not support him than do little so that you can tarnish his image.”

A follow up post with a photo of Atimbila and Madam Tangoba Abayage captioned: “Madam Tangoba Abayage, so because of this cheap infinix phone which is less than 200 Ghana cedis you gave to Atimbila, you go on radio to tarnish the image of our talented musician?”

Other Facebook users shared their views on the matter. Matilda’s message was positive. “Atimbila is super talented. He needs us. He needs our positive vibes. He needs our support.”

For Samoo, her comments were hurtful. “How can a mother speak like this about her son on a radio station? The thing pain me paaa. Even if he drinks, does he use your money to drink? If you can’t be gentle to help, don’t be too harsh and wicked to condemn. How did you help him? Did you build for him a house? Did you even help him record a single song or sponsor an album? How can you say you helped? The yamayama phone that you gave to him?”

For Edy, some take advantage of the musicians because of the lack of a proper industry structure. “There is no music industry in our homeland to give us a level playing ground to compete or even exhibit our God-given talents to the world, so people take advantage of us to gain cheap popularity at our expense, and it looks like some of them tried to do music themselves and failed woefully so they think nothing good can come from our homeland, but God is watching.”

Moses’ words to her are prophetic. “She should pray for her children not to drink alcohol.”

For Malcolm, Madam Tangoba should have known better. “See how humble the guy is. Granted that Atimbila is an alcoholic, Tangoba should know better how to handle situations like this if Atimbila offended her. Alcoholism is a disease.”

For Asang, her action is a warning to everyone who has ever benefited from her. “She indeed got it wrong, to the extent that beneficiaries of similar items are worried and panicking by now as they fear that their names may follow.”