I strongly believe I’m not the first person to start his discussion and I will not be the last. I know this is not the first time this topic is being brought on the tables for discussion.

Nonetheless, I don’t think it’s a piffling issue that should be scorned simply because some people brought it up in the past but opinions failed to converge for the way forward. Embossing a person’s name on an award’s plaque or trophy to an awardee or honoree is very crucial but we seem to have waved off it in Ghana Music Awards (GMA).

One of three reasons why embossing an awardee or honoree’s name on a plaque or trophy is the fact that it ensures: readily identification, forestalls doubt and makes room for easy reference.

There’s some Schools of Thought that holds the opinion that embossing names of awardees, winners, or honorees on an award’s plaques or trophies is not feasible because you can’t tell who will win on the actual day.

Granted that is the excuse, an alternative is that a miniature plaque or trophy could be presented to the awardee or honoree on stage on the actual award night after which the embossed ones, later presented to the winners. BET Awards uses this alternative.

When we all attended school and graduated, we were awarded certificates. On the certificates were our names. It was not only the name of the school that we attended which was on the certificate. This is because we attend schools individually and toil individually to merit the certificates; hence, our individual names on the awarded certificates.

We all have our names on national IDs, voting IDs, Birth Certificates, passports, driver’s license, etc. Almost all important and tangible items about humans have our names on it. I don’t concur with Charterhouse giving plaques to winners of GMA without the winners’ names on them.

Let’s say you are a musician who won ‘Songwriter of the Year’ or ‘Best Artiste of the Year’ without your name on the plaque. Any foreigner you present the plaque to, can decide to doubt your ownership of the plaque or call for ‘further and better particulars’ to convince him/her of the authenticity of the plaque – because it appears anonymous.

What if you don’t have a newspaper publication of you to vindicate yourself on the spot? Or the internet is off or down for you to confirm a write up on GhanaCelebrities.Com about yourself? You might have lost an opportunity or been humiliated needlessly. How can someone win ‘Best Songwriter of the Year’ but his/her name is not embossed on the winning plaque?

As I’ve already noted, having your name on a plaque or trophy ensures: readily identification, forestalls doubt and makes room for easy reference. Do you agree Ghana Music Awards organizers should emboss the winner’s names on the winners’ plaques? Let’s share opinions. Until then……MOTWUM!!