Chief Executive Officer of Lynx Group Limited, Richie Mensah, has revealed why he backed out of the race to become a Vice President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), despite initially expressing interest in 2019.
Richie explained that holding a formal position of power does not align with his personality.
“The truth is, let me be very honest. I don’t like politics. I don’t like power, position, I don’t even like authority. Sometimes when people are listening to me, I am amazed. I’m like, why are you even listening to me? I am passionate about what I do, and I do what I do. So when people follow me because they believe in what I am doing, that is great.”
Richie Mensah
He added that campaigning for the role made him realise that occupying a leadership office was not the right fit for him.
“Along the journey and everything when I had to campaign, and talk and all, I realised this is not me. I want to work. I don’t want to hold office. It’s not my thing.”
Richie Mensah
According to him, he initially decided to contest because the move was largely influenced by the encouragement of industry players who believed his leadership could benefit the sector.
“The truth is a lot of people in the industry kept coming to me to say ‘we need people like you to fill these kinds of positions, to help the industry and everything’, so I was doing it in the place of helping the industry because I was being called to. But I realised that I can actually help the industry more in my role than to hold an office position.”
Richie Mensah
In 2019, Richie announced via a video that he would be contesting for the MUSIGA Vice President role. In that message, he cited his vast experience in the music industry and highlighted several projects he had championed to standardise the space.
“In my efforts to standardise the industry, I embarked on projects such as Music Plus, Music this Week, The Future project, an official Ghana music chart and Ghana Music Live App. There is so much more that can still be done, which is why when nominations open, I will be picking up forms to stand for Vice President for MUSIGA.”
Richie Mensah
However, when nominations officially opened, Richie did not file to contest. Before this, he had already served as Director of Music Standards at MUSIGA for four years under the leadership of Bice ‘Obour’ Osei Kuffour.
Through Lynx Entertainment, now Lynx Group Limited, Richie has nurtured some of Ghana’s top musical talents, including Eazzy, OJ Blaq, Asem, Ziggy, MzVee, DopeNation, Kuami Eugene, and KiDi. His company has since expanded into film production, music distribution, and publishing.
Richie recently released a self-help book titled ‘Yes, It’s Your Fault’, which explores themes of personal responsibility, growth and navigating creative and professional challenges. The book adds yet another dimension to his contributions to Ghana’s creative industry.
Richie Mensah Blasts Creative Arts Neglect
The music producer criticised the Ghanaian creative industry for failing to organise itself in a way that earns government support, stating that until the sector proves its economic value, government investment will remain minimal.
Richie argued that support is earned, not demanded. He advised players in the creative space to focus on producing results instead of expecting handouts. “I say all the time that leave government alone, leave associations alone, leave everybody alone, and do what you can do. He who embarks on a worthy cause deserves a push,” he said.
While acknowledging that he has received support throughout his career, Richie emphasised that such support only came after he had demonstrated value.
“You see, I have mentioned earlier that as much as I have had a lot of challenges, I have also had a lot of support. But every support I have received in my life has been earned. I wasn’t given the support in a vacuum. I was given the support because I proved that if you support me, it’s worth your time and money.”
Richie Mensah
According to Richie, the government has little incentive to invest in the creative arts because the industry has not shown enough economic return or unity.
“The reason the government won’t support creative arts is that it’s not worth their time. Let’s be very honest. You have artists and media people standing there talking about ‘do this for me, do this for us, we deserve this’, we are so entitled, stop talking.”
Richie Mensah
Using the United States as an example, Richie pointed out that the American government supports the entertainment industry because it contributes significantly to the economy.
“California has a higher GDP than Texas. This means that US entertainment is bringing in more money than oil. So when you see the US government support entertainment, when you see them pass laws to help entertainment, how LA has laws that favour its own writers and everything, it’s not because the President or the Minister likes music, because they understand that it is making them enough money to invest in other things.”
Richie Mensah
He expressed frustration over the lack of unity and professionalism within the Ghanaian creative space.
“When we can’t get our act right, who do we want to support us? When we are doing things the way we are supposed to. We can’t even organise enough. And I don’t even mean an association. If you put five artists in Ghana together, two of them have beef. If you are organising an event right now, the vendors have beef with each other, and media houses have beef with each other. We can’t even get our part right.”
Richie Mensah
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