By Ahmed Rahma
The 2021 MTV Africa Music Awards ceremony has been postponed, the organisers announced on Thursday night.
The event, which was scheduled to hold in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on February 20, has been postponed indefinitely.
The prestigious ceremony is being organised in partnership with Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism.
In a message, MTN Base Africa said it was moving the date of the programme to a yet-to-be-announced date.
The MTV Base Music Awards is one of the key events on the music calendar in Africa with performances from leading African and international artistes.
“MTV Base is postponing the 2021 MTV Africa Music Awards.
“We will keep fans updated as we have more news,” MTV Base Africa posted on its official Twitter handle.
However, MTV Base Africa did not give reasons for the decision to postpone the event.
A Ugandan musician-turned-politician and opposition leader, Mr Bobi Wine, held a news conference following MTV Base’s decision.
He said it was painful to see that MTV was being used to sanitise the oppressive regime in Uganda.
“I am glad MTV is also seeing it and acting in respect of all the rights of artists. It will be such a shame for the MTV Music Awards to be held in Uganda under gunpoint,” he said.
The Kampala edition was set to be the first-ever live-streamed virtual MTV Africa Awards due to complications arising from the coronavirus pandemic and also, the first time the awards would be held in Uganda.
The awards, known as the MAMAs, first held in 2008 in Abuja, and last held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016 as well as East Africa in 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Meanwhile, MAMAs voting is ongoing and the public could vote via the awards’ official website.
Some of the top Nigerian artistes and comedians nominated into various categories of the award are Tiwa Savage, Adekunle Gold, Naira Marley, Wizkid, Mark Angel, Simi, Burna Boy, amongst others.
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