Gifty Anti talks about the inspiration behind Standpoint

Oheneyere Gifty Anti, ace broadcaster, feminist and host of popular women’s show, ‘The Standpoint’, has opened up about where and how she derived inspiration to start her own television show.
Sharing her life story and great achievements on the Y-Leaderboard Series anchored by Rev. Erskine, she started from when she went abroad to do her masters where she met a very strong woman in the person of Christabel King, her Journalism lecturer, who also happened to be a feminist.
“She wanted me to stay on after my Master’s degree but I said no, I wanted to come back. She said Gifty, you talk about your dad but he’s dead and gone now so what is there for you in Ghana? I told her that I still have to go to Ghana because there’s something for me to do. She said okay but I want you to make me this promise.
When you go, you’re going to do something to change the lot of the Ghanaian woman. You’re going to empower the Ghanaian woman and you’re not going to let whatever you’ve learnt here go to waste. You’re not going to let your challenges be your own because God gave you this opportunity not for you but for the greater good”
With this, she came back to Ghana wanting to make some changes on the breakfast show which she used to host at the time, but since she was not a boss then, she could only suggest and not change, hence, it was quite frustrating according to her.
Gifty continued that she kept this going till she got to the point where she decided to start her own show on which she could bring women to show people how knowledgeable and powerful they are and to make people aware that there were many other successful women out there aside from her.
“To let people know that there are women out there who are better than me and it’s not because somebody is sleeping with me out there that’s why I have a loud voice or I am assertive and speak my mind but because I have something to offer”, she shared.
The ace broadcaster disclosed that initially, she had wanted to start the Standpoint in partnership with GBC but her then director told her that the corporation needed money, and for that reason, if she could find her own money and privately produce the show without it conflicting with her work at the GBC, then she could go ahead with it.
Oheneyere Gifty Anti went ahead to invest in producing the show without the help of GBC and twelve years down the line, Standpoint has been one of the most successful television programmes which is still running and making an impact in the lives of Ghanaian women.
The Standpoint is an educative, empowering, influential, discerning and comforting TV programme which deals with issues affecting women in their social lives, cultural lives, health, tradition, politics and in terms of leadership. The show, with has the tagline “Listen to the feminine side”, represents the voiceless and defenceless women in society.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye