Letter to Christiane Amanpour: The rage of Ghanaians was not against Moesha

I appreciate and applaud you and CNN to have dared to enter one area of human endeavours that we hardly talk about and shy away from.

I salute your genuine concern of not knowing how it was all going to be when the intention was hatched. Thank you ones again for using your medium to give women space to discuss sex and love as a way to give them a voice.

In Ghana there have been many occasions that I stood up for our women, many times I have taken a stand for women and many times I have honoured invitations to speak to empower our women. And I can say somehow we are doing the very same thing to give our women a voice.

I must admit again that it is very profound of you to have taken a stand for a guest Moesha Bodoung on your show.

Christiane what you don't know or perhaps overlooked with the case of our rage is not and never will be the right of Moesha to sex or her expression on sex and exercise towards sex or how she goes about her sex life.

In Africa, our expression and exercise of RIGHTS encapsulate our culture, tradition, values, virtue and heritage which is an embodiment of our African Identity which Moesha Bodoung knows very well. Yet when it comes to her sex right and life we respect that.

We have gone a long way to fight practices such female genital mutilation, troksi, etc as a people who saw those as inhumane. Many of us are encouraging early education of sex among our young ones just as it is done during puberty rights such bragro, dipo etc. We are still advocating a new way of sanitizing the practices the goes into it, as way of showing respect to the rights of these girls who go through these puberty rights.

Moesha Bodoung if you care to know is not new to our media and her position about sex. It is our media that gave her the platform all these while to have her share her perspectives about sex and how she see it. If Ghana media hadn't given her many space and time to share her thoughts I guess CNN wouldn't have found her to consider for an interview. There are so many submission she made that isn't new to Ghanaians and we have never been on rage to correct her because she had not made any inaccurate or generalized submission. Some of her content in your video clip isn't new to us at all.

Our rage is as a result of some of her submission that bothered on generalization and inaccuracies. As though every Ghanaian woman is into sex for material things like her or everyone is in her act of sex and dating married men as a trade for cars, house, money, holidays etc.

The very economy she says is tough for women of her kind is same economy her boy friend is working in.

Isn't it logically amazing that it is the same tough economy that her boyfriend keeps his marriage, maintain her Moesah but still engages more mistresses as she attested to.

Amazingly, your theme is sex and love but her submissions were all about sex and her material needs. This in itself defeats the theme of your show.

In Ghana, we want to encourage and empower our women to work out their passion, career and prospects not just by servicing married men for luxury. We want to raise role models like Dr. Joyce Aryee, Madam Esther Cobbah, Mawuena Treba, late Dr. Eva Lokko, Israella Kafui Mansu, Kafui Adzah, Afiyoo Larko Kofi, Sara Nana Yeboah, Selikem Acolatse-Apaloo, @Nana Aba Anamoah, Mabel Aku Baneseh etc.

Recently some young ladies made to MIT, Harvard etc and that is how we want to empower our women.

We know Moesha from her childhood, junior high school, senior high school to university and her lifestyle now than you know. And all these while we have never responded to her like we did in your interview.

We gave her platform in the media to share her perspectives and we have never gagged or disrespected her rights but when she made generalized and inaccurate submissions on your show we will not let it be a mixed bag.

Recently CNN made a story on Ghana with some inaccuracies and we roared like we have done to Moesha to correct the narrative. That cannot be a matter of human rights violation.

Our uproar and defence of Ghana against the CNN reportage with inaccuracies did not bar you from coming to work here again sound and safe. How much more Moesha Bodoung our own would we subject to attack and breach her safety.

Not a single fingernail will be raised at her, no one will attack her, Ghanaians are not like that and you experienced our sense of love and hospitality. As we have expressed our unhappiness and corrected the narrative we are very OK.

We as a nation have worked hard on right to free speech and we encourage it in all our discussions and deliberations.

Same rights enjoin us to be responsible for our freedom of speech so it does not infringe upon the rights of others and it must be the kind that promotes and uphold our values, heritage, virtue, culture and tradition.

Her apology is well received and we are moving on, don't be surprised to hear or watch her again on our media screens because we are very respectful to the rights to free speech of our citizenry which encapsulates our values, virtues, culture, tradition and heritage.

Thank you

Scofray Nana Yaw Yeboah

Transformational Coach/Certified Professional Trainer