Mark Okraku-Mantey, former Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has said in a recent interview on Joy FM that one of the projects he wished he could complete before leaving office was the amphitheatres.
He told Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z that the construction of the amphitheatres, which was his idea, stalled due to insufficient funding.
“[I wish I could finish] the amphitheatres because we would have added that to President Akufo-Addo’s CV. Yes, it is still his CV because he built it. Even as we exited, he got the budget, the money is there to finish it so it is still President Akufo-Addo’s achievement but I would have loved to finish for him to open, launch, commission in his name like President Rawlings did to the National Theatre,” he said.
When Mark was asked what prevented him from a building the amphitheatres, he said “it was budget issues.”
He added that he was happy Abla Dzifa Gomashie, a creative arts person, is the minister in charge of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts now because she would understand the needs of creatives better as the main minister and not a deputy.
Okraku-Mantey said things would be different if he were the main minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture in Akufo-Addo’s administration.
“The job of a follower is to also manage your leader which is your boss. What he believes in, you also believes in it. My job is to convince him, persuade him, talk him into seeing the amphitheatre concept. The love for it will not be the same as the one who midwifed the concept.
So if it was my baby directly and I was the one taking decisions for money, maybe the amphitheatre would have come before some of the other projects,” he said.
The amphitheatre idea was birthed after the NPP failed to provide ultra modern theatres for nine regions as promised. They rather resolved to establish five amphitheatres in five cities: Kumasi, Tema, Accra, Takoradi and Tamale but none of them was completed before the New Patriotic Party left power on January 7, 2025.
According to Mark an amount of about 2.5 million dollars from the World Bank did not suffice for the five projects so they had to go for an extra amount of about 700,000 dollars, which he claims is still available for the new government to use.
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