Marijuana Smoking Competition At Stadium

It was as if there was marijuana smoking competition at the Accra Sports Stadium from last Saturday night till the early hours of Sunday as there was unrestrained smoking of marijuana also known as ganja during the Mavado Live in Ghana concert.

The selling, possession and use of marijuana is a criminal offence in Ghana yet that law was put aside during the concert and thousands of persons turned their nostrils into a chimney, inhaling and puffing out thick smokes of marijuana as if they were on a suicide mission. The smokers were so daring that they passed on lighted joints of the illegal substance rolled perfectly and skillfully clipped between fingers. Not even the MC for the show, Bola Ray was spared as he and other non-smokers at the event had no choice but to become passive smokers as they inhaled the illicit drug.

The concert could pass for one of the biggest and most successful shows of the year, taking into account the turn up and performances. Midway into the show, News-One picked reports that the ticket had been completely sold out yet long winding queues had still been formed at the gates. The desperate fans outside the stadium, in apparent frustration, gave security officials a hard time as they became agitated and attempted entering the stadium with our without tickets .The main artiste for the night, Mavado, simply did not live up to expectation and had many people walking out of the show while he was still performing.

The question on the lips of many was who awarded Mavado the title Dancehall Messiah and named him as the biggest dancehall artiste in the world? News-One observed that Mavado might have had a problem playing with a live band as the coordination between him and the instrumentalist was jus missing. There were a few times he even went off key ad sang faster than the band.

There were also times he appeared confused and undecided on what to do and he kept stopping the performance midway and starting another song which he would also stop and start. His stage craft was equally questionably and it was clear he had a problem with audience coordination and at a point people started calling for Samini to be brought back on stage.

Samini was the most celebrated artiste of the night as he delivered a 30-minite live band performance that got everyone dancing and jumping in wild ecstasy. ‘Outstandingly thrilling’ is not good enough phrase to describe Samini’s performance as he stole the show and took shine from Mavado himself. Samini simply proved that he may not have an international image as big as Mavado’s but when it comes to music, he understands the act better. Fidie Ranks from Nigeria, Kwaw Kese and Sarkodie also put up very spectacular performance that got the crowd calling for more.