Controversial dancehall artiste Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr. aka Shatta Wale became one of the most talked about subjects after the 2017 CAF Awards held at the Accra International Conference Center on January 4.
The musician like many other artistes was booked for the event with a gargantuan cash. Shatta Wale the morning after the awards has told Zylofon FM in Accra that he pocketed $ 30,000 from organisers of the show but decided not to show up for the show for a very good reason.
According to him, he believes the amount he took was black market job an individual wanted to perform in order to also get a share of the total cash the Confederation of African Football budgeted for him. Wale continued that the person who booked him for the show failed to present a contract when his management requested for it and that was when he realised that the person was trying to dupe him because the music body does not operate in that manner.
The outspoken musician made it clear that he will not refund the $30,000 he collected to organisers of the show even though he did not show up on stage to perform.
“I don’t have a contract with CAF. Nobody had contacted me. Two days to the event, then someone contacted me that CAF is offering $30,000. I have worked with CAF before and I know they don’t do things like that. Some of us should be very careful in this country. We are killing ourselves. I need to be paid well. This is my home. I have taken the money and nobody can take it from me because I didn’t sign any contract with anybody. I don’t know why somebody can just go and collect $30,000, come and give it to me and tell me to go and perform while I’ve not seen my contract.
“When they (CAF) wanted me in Nigeria last year, they wrote emails two months to the event before we were able to seal a deal. We had a schedule. Here in Ghana, two days to the event, someone will call me and say he has $30,000, rush and come meet my manager. As a smart man, I’ll save the $30,000 first and that’s what I did. I then asked them to go and bring the contract to show who agreed that I take such an amount for a show of that nature. So disrespectful!
Despite the answer he gave, Shatta Wale said his manager convinced him to go perform but what irked him was the fact that he was not allowed to do sound-check.
“We were told we can’t have our sound check because they had closed. Meanwhile, the Nigerian acts had been allowed to do theirs. I drove my car and came back home. I don’t like nonsense!” he fumed again.
The 2017 CAF Awards hosted by Hollywood actor of Ghanaian descent, Boris Kudjoe, and wife, Nicole Ari Parker had exciting performances from top Africa acts like Efya, Kidi, Wizkid, Patoranking, Flavour, Patoranking, Phyno, Tiwa Savage, Olamide, Too Fan and many others.
Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Liverpool won the African player of the year at the 2017 CAF Awards. Mohamed Salah beat Sadio Mane of Senegal and Liverpool, and Gabon’s Pierre Emerick Aubameyang who plays for Dortmund. He takes over from Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez who won the 2016 edition in Abuja.
Via Zionfelix.com
