Features
Our celebrities must behave responsibly
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of an individual or a group as a result of the attention given to them by the mass media. This group of people is highly recognised and revered depending on their individual skills by the larger society. It can be in the field of arts and culture, music, entertainment, pastoral, sports, boxing, wrestling, football, etc, one can become famous and earn the tag of a celebrity.
POPULAR CELEBRITIES IN THE WORLD
All over the world, there are people who have excelled and continue to be popular in various fields of endeavours with distinguished qualities in their countries and international circles and have become celebrities. Some of the most popular celebrities with large followings on social media include Billie Eilsh, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello, Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga among others. These celebrities of the highest repute, have exemplified and proved themselves in the world of music, entertainment, movies, songwriting, book publishing, mobile games, DVDs and are worth millions of dollars.
GHANAIAN CELEBRITIES
Over here in Ghana, when we talk of celebrities, names that come out sharply which continue to trend on social media include, Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Nelson, Juliet Ibrahim, Nadia Buari, John Dumelo, Yvonne Okoro, Emelia Brobbey, Fela Makafui, Joselyn Dumas, Martha Ankoma, all actors and actresses, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, Mzvee, Becca, Sarkodie, Akuapem Poloo and many other musicians with millions of Instagram followers. These are celebrities who are highly recognised, respected and acknowledged in the Ghanaian setting due to their high professional background.
Apart from these celebrated actors, actresses and musicians of high repute, there are also some pastors and evangelists who by nature of their work and the so-called miracles they continue to perform, have attracted a lot of followers both home and abroad thereby earning them the title celebrities.
Religious leaders such as Pastor Mensa Otabil, Bishop Agyin Asare, Apostle-General Sam Kuranchie Ankrah, Reverend Heward Mills, Bishop Duncan-Williams, Rev. Isaac Owusu-Bempah, Prophet Obinim, Rev Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Apostle Kwabena Owusu Agyei, Prophet Eric Amponsah aka Computer man, Prophet Nicholas Osei, aka Kumchacha, Rev Obofour, Rev. Robert Ampiah-Kwofi, Apostle Abraham Lamptey, among others, may fall into that category.
SUPPORT TO SOCIETY BY SOME CELEBRITIES
The nature of their work has indeed, generated and continue to fetch them enough funds in terms of incomes and some have seen the need to donate part of their earnings to charity and philanthropic work within the society.
Some of them continue to provide reliefs to the needy while others are involved in community initiated projects and programmes, such as school blocks, clinics, payment of school fees for the needy and provision of school uniforms and furniture to the deprived communities. Indeed, such humanitarian gestures and support are highly commendable to promote orderly developments and to establish acquaintances with the citizens.
These celebrities deserve a lot of praise for their dedicated service to their motherland and the people in general. However, there are a few whose actions and inactions leave much to be desired and tend to soil the image of the profession they have chosen for themselves.
Some of them are arrogant, ‘big in their shoes’ and also difficult to manage. They feel that they have all what it takes and the necessary resources at their disposal and, therefore, can misbehave unilaterally. Some of them even smoke weed or Indian hemp and drink hard liquor excessively.
CELEBRITIES WHOSE NEGATIVE ACTIONS ARE UNDERMINING PROGRESS
It is difficult to forget some of these celebrities who gave us something to talk about with their bad behaviours and negative practices in public display. Most of these celebrities cracked our ribs and made us so annoyed to the extent that most Ghanaians demanded that they be arrested and put before the law courts at some point.
If our memories serve us right, in 2016, a worst-behaved Ghanaian celebrity who tagged himself a prophet was spotted in a video lying on top of one of his female congregants who had sought assistance for healing.
That notorious pastor or prophet, claimed that he was channeling the power of God to heal the woman by lying on top of her. That same pastor was also seen on live television administering lashes of the cane on two teenagers for allegedly fornicating. That reprehensible behaviour of that pastor generated an uproar among Ghanaians with some asking the government to invite the police to step in and deal with the unacceptable conduct of the pastor.
LET’S BEWARE OF FAKE PASTORS AND PROPHETS
It is a fact that some of our people, especially women remain gullible and allow some of these so-called pastors and prophets to play on their ignorance and use them for all kinds of negative and diabolical agendas and get away with them.
These occult pastors and prophets use their devilish inclinations to visit wicked and obnoxious practices on unsuspecting female congregants who are desperately looking for the fruit of the womb.
They will lie to them by telling them that the holy spirit has requested that they should have sexual intercourse with them to open their wombs for pregnancy. Some of them go to the extent of predicting the death of fellow humans as if they represent God the Creator of heaven and earth. That is indeed, a fallacy and we need to guard against those palpable lies from these so-called men of God.
Another popular boxer, who goes by the name Bukom Banku, in 2016, after he had bleached his skin amid public criticisms, confronted his accusers with a rather disgusting video showing his complete nakedness dancing on the street of Accra with people including peace officers looking on unconcerned.
THE CASE OF SHATTA WALE AND ACCOMPLICES
Just recently, one of the popular Dancehall artistes, Charles Nii Armah Mensah, popularly known as Shatta Wale, was arrested after faking a gunshot attack on him, thus causing fear and panic. Shatta and three of his accomplices have since been arraigned at an Accra Circuit Court. His accomplices, Kojo Owusu Koranteng, Idris Yusif, and Eric Venator were also charged with abetment of crime. Shatta Wale pleaded not guilty to the charge of the publication of false news and causing fear and panic.
Another prophet known as Bishop Stephen Kwesi Appiah (Jesus Ahuofe) of the New Life Kingdom Chapel was also put before court following his prophecy that Shatta Wale would be shot on October 18, 2021. He was subsequently charged for causing fear and panic.
Since these cases are pending before a competent law court, I do not intend to make any further discussions on the case.
OUR CELEBRITIES MUST LEAD BY EXAMPLE
All that I can say is that some of our cherished celebrities are trying to misbehave thereby causing disaffection to themselves and their large followers and this is not healthy at all. These celebrities have earned names for themselves and must learn to protect and guard jealously their high reputations. They must learn to lead by example so that their numerous followers will continue to respect and adore them.
This country is guided by a set of laws and those laws are binding on all the citizens irrespective of your status in the society. Going contrary to these laws as enshrined in the statute books, means you are disobeying the rules and, therefore, the sanctions will be applied.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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