Guest Blog: Celebrity culture and lifestyle issues: should we be concerned?

Fellow Ghanaians, the Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr, popularly known as Shatta Wale spectacle was a mirror held up to our society. On October 19, 2021, Shatta Wale was arrested for faking a gun attack on himself, sparking a nationwide conversation. Fast forward to August 2025, the same man makes headlines again after the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) invited him over a supposed money laundering investigation linked to flashy cars and unexplained wealth. What does this say about us as a people?

When news broke that Shatta Wale was being questioned by EOCO, fans thronged the premises in Accra, chanting his name and demanding his release. Really? Why are we so quick to defend personalities but so slow to defend principles? Why do we flood the streets for one man, yet we do not march to demand jobs for millions of unemployed youth? Why do we scream for the freedom of celebrities, yet stay silent when justice fails the ordinary Ghanaian?

We saw young men and women leave their workplaces and schools to gather at EOCO. What exactly did they want? To intimidate a state agency? To tell EOCO that our systems should not work when it comes to the rich and famous? Why do we behave as if celebrities deserve a different set of rules? If EOCO cannot question a celebrity because fans will gather to protest, then what hope is there for accountability in this country?

Look around you: the very people who block roads to protect a Lamborghini will not block roads to demand safe highways that are killing us daily. A people who can organize in hours to shout for a musician cannot organize in years to demand clean water, functioning hospitals, or a justice system that works for the poor as well as for the rich. What kind of republic are we building?

Shatta Wale himself is reported to have said that he bought the said vehicle “from the street” and that he cannot identify the person he bought it from. Is that acceptable? Should we, as citizens, just nod and move on? If an ordinary Ghanaian said this to the police, would the case end there? Or is this the privilege of fame, the dangerous belief that celebrity status is a shield against scrutiny?

The problem is not Shatta Wale alone. It is the celebrity culture we have built in Ghana. Social media is flooded with influencers and stars flaunting designer clothes, foreign trips, and flashy cars, accompanied by flowery motivational quotes. “Believe in yourself,” they say. “Hustle and you will make it.” But how many of them show the real source of their wealth? How many of them pay their taxes? And yet, we allow them to shape our aspirations, to define what success looks like for an entire generation.

In all these, what can be done as a society? We need to draw a line between admiration and blind worship. Celebrities are not gods. They are not above the law. When a state agency calls them to account, our duty as citizens is to let the law take its course, not to gather in numbers to obstruct justice. We must demand that systems work, not just for the poor but for the rich and famous too.

Fellow Ghanaians, we must ask ourselves some hard questions: What kind of citizens are we becoming? A people more concerned with protecting fame than protecting justice and fairness? A society that celebrates wealth without asking how it was made? If that is who we are becoming, then we are in trouble. Because no nation can thrive when its people defend personalities instead of principles.

Written by Samuel Nii Adjetey,

sam.nadjetey@gmail.com 

Journalist and media and information Literacy advocate