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.

Speaking in an interview with Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z, 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 what is great,” he said.

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,” he stated.

Asked why he initially decided to contest, Richie said 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 kind 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,” he noted. 

In 2019, Richie had 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,” he had said.

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.