Since Jan 1st, 2020, I have received a lot of phone calls –and up today-they shared with me as a journalist about their dissatisfaction about the recent NUMA awards –some are the artists, managers and well-wishers. Some went as far as burning their accolades because they felt they wasted their time. I consoled and guided them accordingly and I feel I should share with you how I feel NUMA should be handled not to lose its meaning.
Northern Uganda Music Award (NUMA) is a good venture that
has been limping for a decade now due to its unclear vision and mission. Every
time the Award is organized-the following mornings is washed by outcry and
allegation of bribery and favours.
Voters are technically knocked out with money changing hands
and left with no option but to take on what the judges have for them. They
grumble so had “We expected this and that to be the artist of the year but to
the opposite”. These issues of bribery, favours and sideling artist has not
been address ten years after the birth of the awards with the latest scam
arising for the one held four days ago.
I don’t sit in the committee of the Award which mainly
consists of Radio Deejays (I am not a DJ)- and I don’t know what they usually
evaluate to come up with the winners but from what I see they have corrected
nothing and improved nothing in trying to build the awards as issues continue
to crop up year in and out.
Verdict: For NUMA
to move forward on ground association musicians, managers and promoters need to
seat down and revise their contractual documentation. The line of nominee’s benefit
should be mapped out clearly say for example if it’s for an accolade and money
then how much.
I propose nominees are given a better fraction from the
annual gate collection so they can walk home happy people. It is very unfair to
make a gate collection of sh60-90 Million and give artist peanuts or even
nothing for those who brave the cold weather and end up not winning.
It is wrong business indeed and since the event is not sponsored
sharing a portion from gate collection would benefit all participants as a way
of addressing the after event squabbling.
NOMINEES.
To-date we don’t know who does the nomination, could it be
the listeners? If they are, how do they do it? If on radio, which radio
stations? When does it open and how many people should nominate an artist to be
able to qualify for the competition? Does it need the consent of a particular
artist? Do people know which categories these artists fall in and who determines
the entry categories? Unless this is addressed, there will always be confusion
and discontent. Because people think it
is a one-man’s show. The one who does everything including selecting who should
win and Not.
Verdict: I think openness in this award should begin with coming
up with list of nominees and the same list availed to listeners to scan through
those nominated and in which category and this can be followed by voting. If the event organizer decides to use radio stations
both in East and west Acholi should be involved.
The use of online platforms too is an alternative to
embrace. The award must be publicized extensively for good returns on
investment and having a website for NUMA will address the needs of those in diaspora
who too can venture and vote for their own artist as NUMA gains visibility.
Finally, after the close of nomination window, all the
nominees with their respective songs must be profile and lyrics to the songs
appended for people to decide on who is who.
VOTING PROCEDURE.
The voting process has been unscrupulous from day one, how
can over one thousand people vote within the scope without clear knowledge on
the category? more so using plain sheet of paper, its irregular and can’t work.
I hear that 40% of the votes are taken from radio but I work
for a radio station and have never seen any such list availed to our station. Just
a flash back and on record, in 2017 Award, those who lost walked home with
awards while those who were winners smoked out. I thought they would never come
back in 2018 and guess what they returned and still making the same noise.
Can you really believe that they counted all the votes on
the 01-01-2020! It is not possible because the thing ended in the morning (I
don’t want to divulge the details of the mess). It was just a show since
everything was premeditated.
Verdict: In the future to make this
event real and authentic, digitalize the voting process and if you lack the
technical know-how then I am ready to lead a team of software engineers to
develop that simple app to aid in the voting process. It’s a simple logic that
can allow people vote online with much easy given the fact that they can as
well use their phones to vote and we compute results. radio calls too will come
out with properly documented printouts. If all these are done, then we will address
the issue of self-appointing the winners and envision NUMA.
CHOICES OF GUESTS.
Think wise, think twice adjust on your award categories,
time of performance and award giving ceremony. With that sorted then think of
the guest.
It’s a petty how the team invited the Paramount chief of Acholi,
Rwot Onen David Acana as the chief Guest and failed to keep time. It was so
painful seeing our king seat in this mess from 5pm till the wee hours of the
night. He shouldered his pride and endured all the preconditions in the dark
and cold night to give NUMA a face. Yes, he might have been there for the love
of his people but as an individual I feel keeping our king in such a place and
time a sign of disrespect.
Verdict: For the
coming years I propose you start as early as 5pm and get the final winners
announced by midnight.
Conclusively, I love our local artists and NUMA as well and
as we move to scale it up, we need to get a few things herein rectified. There
is no personal vendetta, its business as usual all I want to see is a clear and
set objective for the award to avoid future discontent.
From his posting the following opinion merged and they had this to say,
Robinson Arop Your
ideas is good unfortunately ,the organizer of NUMA is one man, no one has ever
taken an initiative to do it ,so he still has an upper hand because he is
trying from all odds. Last year, I was there and I saw how the voting was done.
I can’t say there are a lot of rigging or favours. If it so happens, then
it is minimal to taint image of NUMA. From the funs, you can even see
ululations who is/are winners.
I am only concern about the price tag for the artist of the year and others that can be at least to the standard and can change life then any artist who have been nominated should go with something not like this one.
Unless artists ,managers , promotors come together to form NUMA ,the status quo will still remain because he took the initiative when no one could think about it. Kudos to him at least he needs to be fair and dynamic.
Okwera
Oloya The long story cut short. In my opinion, people need to be
considerate of so many things before they complain. If I may ask, what could
have been the input of the so call complainants to the success of NUMA to date?
Do the said artist sing or produce songs specifically for NUMA? Or Winning
a NUMA award is just a bonus for them?
From the little I know, NUMA has been almost a one man’s
efforts as a business strategy but not public initiative for whatever purpose
they may suggest. In life many people like ready-made things and therefore if
success finally comes they all one a share.
Now if the concerns you have raised is anything to go with then there will be
need for a wide consultation and all suggestions taken care of.
Charles
Wod Paromo We are in a Free Market Economy…but since the NUMA thing
started I have never seen and person or a body coming out to organize credible
Awards and why participate and later start complaining
Acholi…