Being tagged as a Ghanaian celebrity does come with a burdensome price; whatever you do will be talked about. If you don’t look presentable, Ghanaians will scathe you and say you are broke, if you put on nice clothing, they will say you are using other means to get your money and you are showing off.
If you decide to remain silent and mind your business, they will say you are no longer relevant. It surely does suck to be a Ghanaian celebrity. One such celebrity who is not enthused about how Ghanaians talk about their lifestyle is Sandra Ankobiah, former host of ‘Fashion 101’ and one of the present hosts of TV3’s morning show, ‘This Day’.
Last week, there was a virtual uproar on social media over an article posted by blogger, Chris Vincent Febri on ghanacelebrities.com where the writer unapologetically questioned the seeming extravagant lifestyle of Ghanaian celebrities.
In the article was captioned, “The Ghanaian Celebrity Lifestyle: First Class Travel/Expensive Bags/Exotic Holidays/Designer Wears – Who Is Paying For All These?” The writer expressed his disdain for Ghanaian celebrities for putting up an act of affluence and class when indeed; they lack such materials and privileges.
He also lashed at them for wearing fake accessories and passing them onto their fans and the general public as real. Chris wrote, “Interestingly and probably unknown to many of our Ghanaian Celebrities that most of their western counterparts do not pay for their ‘exorbitant lifestyles’, our celebrities have plunged themselves into this sort of class race-sitting in Accra and wanting to live like Kim Kardashian or Jay-Z.”
He went to write, “Once again, visit the Instagram page of a Ghanaian celebrity and you will be shocked by the sort of free promo the person gives to some fake designer watch purchased from Mainland China, a Cambodia LV bag or British Airways on the false premise that, he or she is ‘balling’ and repeating exactly the high class lifestyle of the western celebrities.”
After such a scathing attack on the credibility of the Ghanaian celebrities, the writer posed the question: “The question worth asking at this stage is this; who is actually paying for First Class Travel, Expensive Bags, Exotic Holidays, Designer Wears and the out of budget lifestyles that our celebrities want us to believe they are living?”
The writer failed to mention the names of celebrities he accused of living a lie but to complement his story, he added the photos of the likes of Yvonne Nelson, Nadia Buari, John Dumelo and Sandra Ankobiah. Like always, readers of the website who do not hide their feelings when it comes to such matters, attempted to answer the question posed by the writer.
Many commentators of the story asserted that many of the female celebrities engaged in such alleged show of deceit, are involved with rich married men, footballers and business men. Some readers chose to brand them as professional ‘ashawos’ and others called them ‘ashawos’ with class.
Some also insinuated that many of these female celebrities get sponsorship from the well-heeled business men and footballers to fund their travels and exotic holidays.
Although her name was categorically not linked to the story, Sandra Ankobia, who is a lawyer, has responded to the write-up on her IG page (instagram). Apparently, another celebrity, Yvonne Okoro, who was mentioned by the website on another story, addressed the writer and Sandra used the opportunity to also address the main issue of celebrity lifestyle.
She wrote; “God bless@Yvonne Okoro for saying it as it is. I have a few choice words for some of these bloggers but the code of conduct for lawyers prevents me from behaving in a certain way. I can be disbarred if I say some of the things I want to say to them. Thank you@Yvonne Okoro.”
Not satisfied with the mild response on Instagram, Sandra is said to have issued some grave invectives on TV3’s ‘This Day’ few days ago towards Chris Vincent Febri, the writer, and readers of the website, ghanacelerities.com.
Many showbiz enthusiasts have questioned why Sandra would choose to respond to the pieces, especially when her name was not mentioned in the article and also, when she is not the only celebrity in Ghana.
Others have also purported that Sandra could be suffering from guilt considering the fact that – she just returned from a birthday celebration trip to the UK and United States and she splattered the photos on her Instagram page.
According to her, she spent part of her holidays in the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas, a luxurious hotel where a standard room cost form some $225 dollars to $2850.
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