|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: A Facebook user has shared a clip in which President John Dramani Mahama cautioned Ghanaians against voting for his own party, the National Democratic Congress.
Verdict: Misleading! DUBAWA’s checks show that while the audio is authentic, it has been selectively edited and stripped of context, creating a misleading impression.
Full Text
A video circulating on Facebook (archived here) claims President John Dramani Mahama cautioned Ghanaians against giving power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Isaac Y. A. Brown captioned the video, “John Mahama warned Ghanaians. They never listened.”
The clip features Mahama saying in Twi: “If we make a mistake and we give NDC the mandate, we will regret what will happen…” — a statement that appears contradictory, given his position as the party’s former flagbearer.
This case is a textbook example of decontextualisation, a frequent disinformation method in the information ecosystem.
By fact-checking it, DUBAWA is not just correcting one claim; it is educating audiences on how misinformation works, strengthening media literacy.
Verification
DUBAWA traced the video to a campaign address (17:10 mins) delivered by Mahama on November 25, 2024, at Daboase Community.
A review of the full speech shows that Mahama misspoke briefly but immediately corrected himself. In the extended version, he states:
“If we make a mistake and we give NDC the mandate, we will regret what will happen… because in the future someone will come and tell us that we’ve sold the country…….
He immediately retracted his statement by noting, “If you make a mistake and NPP comes back to power, they’ll sell the whole country.”
The broader context indicates that Mahama was criticising the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and urging voters not to return them to office, not warning against the NDC.
What’s misleading about the claim?
The viral clip isolates a slip of the tongue, removing the clarification that follows. This alters the meaning of the statement and falsely frames it as a warning against his own party.
Conclusion
Although Mahama did utter the words in the viral clip, the video is misleading. It omits the immediate correction and surrounding remarks, which clearly show he was criticising the NPP and campaigning for the NDC.
