How do you define a celebrity - Dzokoto blasts FDA
Ghanaian actor, Kwame Dzokoto, questions the FDS’s loose definition of celebrities
Tanitoluwa J. Adedotun 
Kwame Dzokoto has labelled the ban on "celebrities" by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) as a fool's errand.
According to him, there cannot be a ban on celebrities stopping them from advertising alcoholic beverages when there is no form of official recognition for celebrities.
He explained that there does not exist a set criteria that a person has to achieve to become a "celebrity" so the FDA has to be more specific with its use of the term.
Lack of clarification, in his words, will only lead to confusion, as no one knows what makes one a celebrity.
He made these assertions while speaking on ClassFM's Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Tuesday, 27 October 2020.
“My position is that I want a legal interpretation to the FDA directive because I think that the people who are deciding who a celebrity is, what is their authority? Like for example, if you don't understand a law, you get to the Supreme Court for interpretation."
“So who do we describe as a celebrity? And to what point can we say that somebody is a celebrity? Because for example, you can get an Assemblyman in an area who is very popular there so that person, is he a celebrity?"
"But definitely, he has an influence over the people there. You can get somebody who is not an Assemblyman or something but maybe how he acts or how vociferous he is during social events...so everybody knows him in the community. Can we describe that person as a celebrity?” He declared.
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He maintained that there have to be criteria now to know whether a person is a celebrity or not while addressing the FDA's guidelines for the advertisement of Food section 148 of the public health Act 2012, Act 851 which describes popular persons as “any person who arouses sufficient interest in society. This may include historical, political, religious, academic, cultural figures as well as celebrities and sports figures”
Kwame Dzokoto, who had earlier lost an advertising deal with an alcoholic beverages company early this year, stated that the FDA should have consulted stakeholders like the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGHA) and the Actors’ Guild, where most of the celebrities fall, before the coming into force of that law, to ensure better understanding.
“When you want to start something, you should gather the stakeholders and tell them, this is what you want to drive, this is what you want to achieve. MUSIGHA, Actors' Guild and the other popular ones then you try to address them. Let us jaw-jaw so that we all understand.
“It is how they implement it. You see we made the law for people so whether it is good or bad, it is how the people receive it that will make the law successful,” he added.
