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Claim: NPP’s Awal Mohammed has published a Facebook video that creates the impression that Vice-President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, was dancing to Daddy Lumba’s Yentie Obiaa song.
Verdict: The video has been manipulated. The Vice-President was dancing to a live music performance from singer Efya.
Full Text
Member of the Communications team of the New Patriotic Party, Awal Mohammed, has posted a video on Facebook, showing the Vice-President dancing to Daddy Lumba’s popular hit song “Yentie Obiaa.”
In the post, made on Friday, February 20, Mr Mohammed said,
“While Ghana mourns the cruel murder of 8 of our brothers in Burkina Faso and cocoa farmers are crying over the insensitive haircut, look at what Vice President Grandma Jane and NDC female appointees are doing in the Jubilee House, dancing ‘Yentie obiaaa.’ The ‘Yentiee Obiaa’ phrase is an Akan expression which, when translated to English, means, “we won’t listen to anyone” or “don’t listen to anybody.” The song, released in 2014, encourages individuals to do what makes them comfortable, ignoring naysayers, and living confidently without being overly influenced by others.
Since its release, the song has often been used in political discourse to represent defiance in the face of public concern or criticism. Awal Mohammed’s post has since garnered over 244K views and over 5K reactions.
The 20-second video features the logo of Accra-based Channel One Television and appears to have been taken at Jubilee House during the First Annual National Forum on Women in Government and Media.
DUBAWA Ghana also observed that some other online accounts had published the video to re-echo the claim. These can be found here and here.
DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim because of the potential to mislead people by framing the video’s content with the choice of song.
Verification
Using clues from the video, we confirmed that it was taken at the First Annual National Forum on Women in Government and Media, held on Thursday, February 19, at the Jubilee House.
We found that a longer version of the video had been published by Channel One Television on Instagram, in which the Vice-President, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, was indeed dancing as seen in the video posted by Awal Mohammed. However, she was dancing to a live music performance by singer Efya.
We matched the two videos and noticed a consistency in the visuals being displayed to viewers. However, we also noticed that the longer video captures more of the atmosphere, allowing viewers to hear the surrounding crowd and others singing along with Efya.
On the contrary, the video by Awal Mohammed has only background music, which raises a red flag.
Conclusion
The video published by NPP communicator, Awal Mohammed, has been manipulated to suggest that the Vice President, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, was dancing to Daddy Lumba’s “Yentie Obiaa” song.
