Celebrities must be role models not delinquents

In the wake of the court saga in which eccentric Akuapem Poloo is serving a 90-day custodial sentence for an act that involved child abuse of a sort, so-called social media influencers, who are mainly celebrities, are campaigning for actress Rosemond ‘Akuapem Poloo’ Brown to be freed or be given a “less harsh punishment.”

With the hashtag ‘#FreeAkuapemPoloo’, social media users such as Sarkodie, Efya, Hajia For Real, Akumaa Mama Zimbi and other Ghanaians are flooding social media with alternative punishment for the actress.

This followed the conviction of the popular actress Akwapem Poloo by the Circuit Court over naked pictures with her son on Wednesday.

By the laws of the land, Akuampem Poloo risks serving jail time of up to three years and, in addition, pay a fine not exceeding ¢6,000 on, Friday, April 16, when the Accra Circuit Court announces the punishment it intends to hand her for publication of obscene materials and engaging in domestic violence.

After months of court proceedings, she has been remanded into custody to undergo a pregnancy test, before her sentencing.

Last Wednesday, the actress pleaded guilty to all three charges and was convicted on her own plea by the court presided over by Christina Cann, culminating in social media users flying a campaign asking that she is freed.

The arguments by the campaigners seem to be that as a celebrity that may be her style. Others insist on account of what she’s been through in life, she should be understood.

A section of the ‘lunatic fringe’ also believes that she should be pardoned altogether because the court’s decision is a “miscarriage of justice.”

Unfortunately, most of these campaigners appear not to make any sane and sober arguments within the spectacles of the law, except insist that because she is a celebrity, she should be treated differently from the ordinary Ghanaian or the scrap messenger at Agbogbloshie and truck pusher at Kejetia.

Of course, as Ghanaians or Africans, for that matter, we love our celebrities. They have been part of our strong and vibrant civil society and drawn attention to the peccadilloes of politicians in critical times, including Dumsor.

Additionally, they have been very much active in supporting act of charity and kept our vulnerable communities comforted by such acts.

That is why we should be annoyed with celebrities like Akuapem Poloo for their excesses.

It is time that the Akuapem Poloos and their sort use their talents and celebrity status to lead the youth of Ghana out of the very acts that she is pushing his son into

Let her learn her lessons and return a changed person and ambassador of hope to the hopeless.