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07.12.2022 Article

Ceelala Lalasi writes: Silly-brities

By Ceelala Lalasi
Ceelala Lalasi writes:  Silly-brities
07.12.2022 LISTEN

Nowadays everybody in Ghana wants to trend.
And some are able to get through and attain the title celebrities.

And once they get there, maintaining that heavyweight title becomes another crazy mind-ache. They can talk and dress anyhow. They can attack rivals as if they have gone crazy. They set up personal handles where they spew nothing but garbage. And they believe they can get away with it because they have become celebrities.

For the purpose of our conversation let us call them “sillybrities” because I know celebrity is a term we have defamed on our country.

There are “sillybrities” whose fame center on how curvy they have undergone the surgical knife to become.

Some do not mind posing for a naked photo with their own children just to trend in the news.

Some are popular only because of gargantuan buttocks behind their back.

Others are simply known for dating and making fortunes from undisclosed wealthy married men.

Slay queens, Baby Mamas and Insult Mongers have had a successful market on our fame market and they make news headlines on front pages of the dailies.

Some have also performed their father’s funeral on social media.

I forgot to mention those who promise multiplying your money when you need it most.

The list goes on and so does the terms.
Others wants us to believe they are humble students of bipolar and we should excuse them when they bombard the public with their roll call of the men they have tasted the pot of intimacy.

The threshold for fame is getting cheaper.
A Ghanaian SLAY QUEEN has gone as far as the CNN.
So it seems the attention pays.
But who put them on the spot?
I do not want to sound judgemental but the truth always seem judgemental from afar.

First of all, people bear the burden of their own data bundle so I should not be talking. I would not have published this article but for the sake of those who like me always feel we must call a spade a spade.

So let us call a spade a spade. Are these desperate fame mongers a thing we should celebrate?

Our silly-brities are trending because when they post their waste products we rush helter-skelter after them.

And they trend. And they get the strength to do more. We are told that is how some of them eat.

Let us call a spade a spade. Who is to blame?
The Education System, Health System, Government, the National Media Commission, YOU, ME, WE.

All of us. Even the devil. After all, they say Mr. Devil finds job for the idle hand and I am convinced that is a correct statement.

Since we have called a spade a spade let us call all spades a spade.

We hardly see a medical doctor making noise on social media for fame and followers in order to eat. Or a law graduate, a ship or a flight pilot, or a teacher. A police or military officer. In short, the more gainfully employed people are, the less likely they are to seek for cheap fame. Let’s call the spade a spade.

A hungry man is a desperate men.
One Ghanaian in the diaspora asked me sometime ago why every young person in Ghana wants the latest smart phone? The point he wanted to make was “why lust after expensive phones when you can barely eat and pay rent?’

Majority of our youth need to hear what is trending and they like to post cute pictures.

As someone said it, we are a sad generation with beautiful pictures.

Let’s call the spade a spade. Most of these faces we see smiling are actually sad and they feel validated when you, me and all of us clap for them.

Did not they say that when you encourage a man he will do more?

That is why we need to stop following anyhow.
Someone said, “If you think you are leading but no one is following you, you are only going for a walk”.

The next nudist or social slanderer would become popular while our best candidates for WASSCE and BECE 2022 receive no media mention. I often ask myself why talented heads such as Gakpetor of NMQS fame has quickly been buried in the sands of time but we have built hall of fame with nothing but nudity to show.

Take time and visit your browser’s history or your YouTube history and ask yourself whether what you have been watching and reading deserves your time. Was that so called celebrity interview profitable? Could you have rather watched a documentary or a panel discussing pertinent issues or a tutorial video on a subject.

When we clap for Gakpetor he would do more. When we clap for PRESEC and KETA they shall give us more. When we praise the BLACK STARS they shall miss less penalties!

Our suffocating bundles and praises and patronage deserves better than garbage. A garbage invites the spade!

My name is Philip Paa Kwesi Arko Cee Ceelala Lalasi Ewusi. When you see a garbage on your phone get your spade.

The writer is a teacher in Accra and a product of Accra Academy (Bleoo!), the University of Cape Coast and KAAF University College. He is the 2017 Ghana Writers Award Winning Author and a law student.

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