Socrate Safo Urges Creative Arts Leaders to Stop Talking, Start Delivering Solutions

Veteran Ghanaian filmmaker and creative industry advocate Socrate Safo has issued a strongly worded open letter to government-appointed leaders of Ghana’s creative industry, urging them to move beyond identifying the sector’s long-standing problems and focus on delivering practical solutions.

In the letter, addressed to the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, and other newly appointed industry leaders, Safo stressed that the creative sector no longer needs officials to repeat challenges that have been discussed for decades.

Football lesson from Kevin-Prince Boateng and Andrea Pirlo

Safo began his letter by drawing inspiration from a story shared by former Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng about his time at Italian club AC Milan.

According to Boateng, he would constantly shout for the ball during training until one day legendary Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo called him over through a teammate who translated into English.

Pirlo reportedly told him:

“Tell him not to shout.”

When Boateng asked why, Pirlo replied:

“If you shout, the opponents will know you’re free. If you’re free, I’ll have already seen you.”

Safo said the exchange represented far more than football intelligence.

“It was a lesson in leadership,” he wrote.

According to him, exceptional leaders do not need constant reminders about obvious problems because they possess the vision to identify opportunities, anticipate challenges and provide solutions before situations become crises.

‘The industry has shouted long enough’

Using the football analogy, Safo argued that Ghana’s creative industry has spent years raising concerns over issues including inadequate funding, weak copyright enforcement, piracy, poor infrastructure, limited access to international markets, insufficient investment and the absence of long-term policies.

He noted that these challenges have been discussed extensively through conferences, interviews, policy papers and media engagements over several decades.

“Our expectation is not for you to keep repeating these problems back to us,” he stated.

“Your appointment was not to become the industry’s loudest commentators. It was to become its most effective problem-solvers.”

Safo added that, like Pirlo on the football pitch, those entrusted with leading Ghana’s creative industry should already know where opportunities exist and where urgent intervention is required.

“The creative sector should not have to keep shouting before action is taken,” he said.

Call for action over rhetoric

The filmmaker stressed that leadership should be judged by tangible results rather than repeated discussions about familiar problems.

He warned that every day spent diagnosing the same challenges without implementing lasting reforms represents lost opportunities for filmmakers, musicians, actors, writers, fashion designers, visual artists and thousands of young creatives who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.

Safo maintained that Ghana’s creative economy has enormous potential to become a major source of employment, tourism, cultural diplomacy and national economic growth.

However, he said achieving that vision would require strategic planning, collaboration with industry stakeholders, sustained investment and reforms capable of surviving changes in political administration.

“The industry is not asking for sympathy. It is asking for leadership,” he wrote.

Challenge to newly appointed leaders

Safo expressed hope that the tenure of the newly appointed officials would be remembered for the structures they establish, the policies they implement, the investments they attract and the opportunities they create rather than speeches about problems that everyone already understands.

He concluded by urging the leaders to emulate Pirlo’s foresight by recognising opportunities before they are pointed out.

“The creative industry has shouted long enough,” he wrote, adding that his excitement over the appointments was based on the expectation that the new leadership would deliver meaningful change.

In a light-hearted remark directed at fellow industry figure Rex Omar, Safo joked, “As for my brother Rex Omar, you, ok, I will deal with him later.”

He ended the letter by saying Ghana is now waiting for leadership that “sees, acts, and delivers.”