Federal Government Appoints Sunny Ade As An Ambassador

The federal government has appointed veteran musician King Sunny Ade as an ambassador of its re-orientation programme: “Change Begins With Me”.

Ade was appointed as the ambassador of Change Begins With Me on Monday, March 6, by the minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed in Abuja.

Mohammed while announcing the appointment described Ade as an icon and a trail blazer, who has reigned in the music industry for over 50 years without blemish.

He said: “We are looking for people like you (King Sunny Ade) that the younger ones can look up to. It’s not just that you have been around for fifty years but you have been around for fifty years without any single stain on your part and that is very hard.”

“Most people like you would have had one issue or the other that today their integrity would be at stake. Your integrity is as strong if not stronger than when you started. So it would be a pleasure if you can accept to be our Ambassador of the ‘Change Begins With Me’,”Mohammed said.

”I want the younger ones to look at you and see that you can actually get to the top without cutting corners. That is exactly what you have done. You have never cut corners and you have gotten to the top,” the minister said.

He also commended Ade for promoting the ‘juju’ music genre to an enviable height with an originality that makes imitating his music an exercise in futility.

Mohammed added that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration is paying more attention to the development of the entertainment industry because of its vast potential in generating employment and creating wealth.

He further decried the systemic weakness in the music industry, especially the inability of government to adequately protect the intellectual property of the nation’s artists.

Mohammed said he has set up a ministerial task force on the creative economy as a deliberate strategy to explore ways of turning the creative industry into a viable avenue for investment by the private sector.

Speaking on hi new appointment Ade pledged to partner with the federal ministry of information and Culture to move the nation forward. “You don’t need to say much.

This is what I love to do and it has been in me. We are ready to do that officially throughout the whole world, ” Ade said.