By Dickson Okello
NTV Uganda presenter, Douglas Lwanga is on the spot for playing more Nigerian music than Ugandan music on his NTV The Beat show.
When Ugandan artistes blast Radio and TV presenters asking for more airplay, what do they really mean? Surely they don’t mean a total ban?
In music the battle between Nigeria and Uganda continues to be fought mainly by the latter. I’m not sure Naija musicians even know there’s a contest running.
Where would we be without P-Square? Michael Jackson? The Beatles? Who wants to live a life without Beyoncé? And would you really like to be in a club that didn’t play Tiwa Savage, D’banj,Wizkid or Davido?
And if we embraced a total ban of art coming from outside Uganda, why stop there? Why not ban everything that wasn’t local? Like technology. Ban the television, the cell phone, the car, the computer.
If our lawyers, bankers, brewers can compete with any of their colleagues globally our local artistes can surely do the same.
They should instead pray to get more access to great producers, more policies that favour growth not through airplay quotas, they shouldn’t force us to appreciate their music, more money from airplay, more prosecution for content aggregators who don’t remit royalties. More space– not protectionism– to be heard.
This misdirected energy is not new. It would be better spent writing songs, though. Songs that come out punching at your heart or your dancing shoes.