CONTROVERSY TRAILS KORA AWARDS

Recent news have revealed that KORA awards which was scheduled to hold in Nigeria last year but couldn’t hold due to the controversies surrounding it and its executive producer- Ernest Adjovi has been moved to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. The award is now scheduled to hold on April 4th, 2010.
Having consistently held in South-Africa for so many years, the organizers decided to move the awards ceremony to West- African and the country that readily came to their mind was Nigeria. They were received by the Cross-River State government to stage the award in Calabar as parts of the plans to further promote the state as a tourist center.
Nigeria’s South-African based Jazz artiste- Kunle Ayo and Nigeria’s pride and gospel act- Sammie Okposo in the midst of select music journalists including yours sincerely presented the KORA statuette to the executive governor of Cross- River State- His Exellency, Liyel Imoke.
Few weeks after the presentation including the grand launch in Abuja which was headlined by American rapper- Curtis Jackson, a.k.a 50 Cent, Ernest Adjovi had a change in plan to hold the award in Lagos after making the former governor of Lagos State- Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu the Patron of the award. The decision didn’t go down well with Cross- River State government and they sued Mr. Adjovi for breach of contract and the case is yet to be decided.
Rhythm & Sounds spoke to ZMC management, the company handling the marketing and public relations for KORA in Nigeria and they revealed that they were also surprised by the development because the case is still in court. They however revealed that they are working on a press release meant to be out this weekend to shed more light on the issue.
Another development also revealed that some African countries have made known their intention to boycott the ceremony in Ouagadougou. Nigerian artistes like P-Sqaure, D’Banj, X-Project, 9ice and Sammie Okposo earlier nominated for the award have been removed from the nominees list.
The new nominees from Nigeria are Asa, 2Face Idibia, Niki Laoye, Jahdiel, Ruggedman, and Blackky. They were nominated alongside other African acts in different categories such as Best Hip Hop Artiste/Group, Best Spiritual Artiste/Group, Best Reggae Artiste/Group, Best Raga Artiste/Group, Best Arrangement, Best Artiste/Group of the Caribbea, Most Promising Artiste/Group, Best African Video Clip, Best Artiste/Group of Africa America and Best Traditional Artiste/Group. The regional categories are Best Artiste/Group from West, East, Central and Southern African. The likes of Dzany Mpiana, Akon, Lil Wayne and Rihanna were nominated in African American Category.
The most surprising thing about the whole organization of the award is that the website- koraawards.org still has Nigeria as the host the country in its history.