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Our leaders need to respected and not feared, says actress Lydia Forson. Early this year, the actress wrote a scathing open letter to the president asking him to address the load shedding situation.

She suffered a barrage of criticisms with some referring to her letter as borderline disrespectful.

In the Confidence issue of Glitz Magazine, Forson explains why she wrote the letter.

“I think a lot of artists shy from commenting on national issues because they are feed into the assumption that it isn’t their place to do so.

The only time they do is when it’s a fad that will bring media attention to them. I’ve had several educated people tell me I shouldn’t talk about the issues that don’t concern me.

I find this ridiculous, because how does the state of the economy not affect me, or lack of water and electricity not concern me?” She asked.

“which brings me to the conclusion that we aren’t respected as creative people in Ghana, we aren’t expected to be intelligent enough to know about national issues, let alone comment; because it’s assumed that we’re just “entertainers” and after all that what would make someone who makes a living making people laugh know about electricity and a depreciating currency.”

“Had I written this in another part of the world, it probably would have been discussed but not with the zeal we did in Ghana. And i believe it’s because we fear our leaders instead of respecting them. Our leaders need to be respected and not feared, and the respect should be earned and not imposed.”