Afia Pokua Took Me Off-Air Over A Flimsy Excuse At Adom FM – Naa Atswei Oduro Discloses
Ghanaian news broadcaster, Naa Atswei Oduro, has opened up about some of the tough challenges she faced while at Adom FM with Afia Pokua.
Sharing the details in an interview with Stacey Amoateng on “The Restoration Show,” the Mama Orgasm presenter, as she’s fondly known, said the intimidation by some bosses and senior colleagues in some media houses is very intense.
According to her, a clear example is when she was taken off air at Adom FM by her then news editor, Afia Pokua, for writing Twi on the scripts for the news.
“At Adom FM, Kwasi Twum had to step in. I was prevented from going on air to present news. You could assess yourself and can tell that the decision was not because you are a bad presenter. At that time, Pokua was the editor, and her reason was that I wrote some Twi notes on the news sheet, so I was taken off air,” she told the host.
She added that she got her job back because Kwasi Twum, the CEO of the Multimedia Group, stepped in.
“It was Kwasi Twum who said he needed me on 6 am news,” she added.
Naa Atswei, who was very popular in Kumasi for her good news presentation skills, told the host that newsrooms in Accra were very hostile, especially because she is female.
“In the media job, there are some people who will like you, others who will not. Some will give you the chance, others won’t…In some places, the men intimidate the women and force them to coil in their shells. They have issues with women who are loudmouth and good at news presenting,” she bemoaned.
She reiterated that one male presenter had issues with her because she introduced the news, even though he usually came to work late that day.
“At other places, a male presenter told me that I am not supposed to introduce the main news if he is not around or is even late…I stood on my grounds and fought them. I was even called a witch,” she explained.