The Absurdity Of Stonebwoy’s Imitator A Wake-Up Call To Take A Critical Look At Security Measures At Events

On Friday the 22^nd of January 2016, a concert was held at the Silver Star Tower in Accra by Live 91.9 FM to officially launch the station after 9 months in existence. The concert was graced by stage performances from a host of Ghana’s mainstream artistes including Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, M.anifest, Efya, E.L, Bisa Kdei and Pappy Kojo.

The concert was generally described by observers as successful. However, few days after the event, a video footage of an unfortunate incident which occurred at the event has emerged.

The content of the video footage

The footage in question, which has been widely circulated on social media platforms in the last 24 hours shows an imitator mounting the stage to imitate how Stonebwoy walks whilst Stonebwoy was on stage performing. Stonebwoy reacted angrily to the imitator’s act by ordering the instrumentalists on stage to halt playing the instruments. Stonebwoy followed up by uttering the following ; “3y3 gyimie no 3y3’’. To wit, “Enough of the fooling”. Stonebwoy then threw the microphone into the crowd and left the stage.

The imitator’s conduct was clearly absurd and absolutely uncalled for. The act was morally improper. Whatever may have been his motive for doing that, the motive was completely wrong. This is an artiste who has been able to defy odds over the years and managed to go through the mill despite his physical challenge to become one of the biggest things to ever happen to Ghana’s music industry.

The accolades he has amassed both domestically and internationally over the last 12 months alone substantiates this assertion. He is viewed as a model of inspiration to people with physical challenges or challenges in other forms to challenge conditions and aim higher. What informed this guy who has claimed to be a Stonebwoy fan to commit such an act just a little distance away from Stonebwoy? In my view, Stonebwoy’s reaction was appropriate and very understandable because as humans we can all be easily prone to such reactions especially when it dwells on such sensitivities.

Aftermath of video circulation

Following the circulation of the said video, apologies have been released into the public domain. Live FM, the media outlet which organized the aforementioned event has come out with a release to apologize to Stonebwoy and his team. In the statement, they condemned the fan’s act which they described as despicable. Earlier today, the fan also released an apology letter to Stonebwoy on behalf of all Bhimnatives. Stonebwoy is yet to officially respond to the apology letter but I believe Stonebwoy will accept it.

Going Foward

Going forward, event organizers have the ultimate responsibility to ensure that there are adequate security measures put in place to warrant a successful organization of events devoid of unfortunate incidents. Watching the said video, I spotted security personnel on the stage. As security personnel were employed for the event, I expected the organizers to barricade the crowd from the stage.

The security personnel would have then been able to deal with anyone who scaled the barricade to mount or get closer to the stage. It’s important to barricade the crowd from the stage at every event, irrespective of the size of the crowd or audience. It is also necessary for artistes to employ personal security personnel who will provide security for them at such gatherings.

I know some artistes have security personnel. The others who don’t have some yet should take a cue from them. Searching observers/crowd before concerts begin shouldn’t also be overruled. It was a mimicking in Stonebwoy’s case. Who knows, it can be a physical assault or a more life threatening incident another time. Surely, this incident should be a wake-up call to take a critical look into security issues at events.

Seth Mireku Jnr

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