|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The controversial Agyapadie document, which went viral during the 2024 general elections, may have played a role in the eventual outcome of the polls.
According to a baseline survey conducted by DUBAWA, a fact-checking organisation, almost 40% of the respondents who took part in the survey stated that the content of the Agyapadie document either influenced their choice of president or had some impact. A total of 60.7% of the Respondents said it did not.
Only 22.7% of the respondents said the controversial document either influenced their choice of parliamentary candidate or somehow did.
A whopping 63.8% of the respondents still believe the document was authored by the Akyem members of the New Patriotic Party, whilst a total of 12.3% think the National Democratic Congress put it together.
The survey, among other things, was designed to explore the role and impact of the Agyapadie document in the recently concluded elections and to determine its next steps now that the elections are over.
Background
The Agyapadie document is a 38-page explosive ethnopolitical document with no official author. However, its promoters, primarily members of the National Democratic Congress, insist it is a family manual by the Akyem-led New Patriotic Party to capture key state assets.
The document published in 2020 followed a similar document in 2016, in which the same group, the Akyem-led members of the NPP, were accused of deliberately collapsing the businesses of political opponents and even other NPP members of Ashanti descent.
At the heart of both documents is a claim to make the Okyenhene more powerful and even more influential than the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The former president, Nana Akufo-Addo’s NPP, has dismissed the content of the documents, describing it as propaganda by the then-opposition NDC aimed at making his family and the NPP unpopular.
Despite his denial and that of many other Akyem members of the NPP, the book and its content became the subject of discussion in the 2024 elections.
Almost six months after the election, the book and its content, which contain issues of criminality, appear to have vanished into thin air.
The baseline survey by DUBAWA aimed, among other things, to assess Ghanaians’ opinions on the document, including who they suspected may have authored it, whether it influenced the election outcome, and what the country should do after the elections.
The survey was administered on social media, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp, in late February 2025, and 179 Respondents completed it.
Regarding the educational background of the respondents, 49.2% held a postgraduate qualification, while 44.1% had a first-degree qualification. A meagre 6.7% had secondary education. While the level of education may not be crucial in elections, especially with a one-man-one-vote policy, it becomes vital if the electorate is confronted with a document that can positively or negatively influence voting decisions.
Of the 93.9% of respondents who said they have heard of the Agyapadie Document, 63.1% said they had read the document wholly or partially. A total of 73.1% of the respondents reported hearing about the document between 2021 and 2024, while 17.5% reported hearing it between 2017 and 2020.
Regarding whether the respondents believed the content of the Agyapadie document, a total of 79% of the respondents said they either completely believed the content or believed it to some extent. Twenty-one per cent of them said they don’t think so or “somehow don’t.” In trying to find out what made them feel the document’s content, 56.8% of the respondents said they believe the content of the Agyapadie document because “everything in the document has happened.” 16.5% of the respondents said they think the document is because of the people who promoted the viral document. The leading promoters of the document were functionaries of the NDC.
What the content of the document meant for the respondents: 49.1% said it was “state capture,” 25.4% said it was about “Akyem dominance,” and 14.2% said it was “false propaganda.”
To top it all off, the respondents were asked, “What do you suggest we do as a country with the content of the Agyapadie document?”
79.8% of the Respondents said they want the authenticity of the Agyapadie document investigated, with 9.8% saying it should be ignored. Another 7.5% of the Respondents said they want the Akyem Mafia prosecuted.
What do you suggest?
