campaign tour

  • Lying to the Electorates: The ‘Confessions’ of John Mahama Fact-checked

    News reports and social media claim John Mahama has confessed to telling lies during election campaigns.

    Mostly False. Although a 2016 video shows the former president making comments to the effect that some politicians tell lies during election campaign periods in order to win the support of electorates, the quotes being attributed to him are false. Furthermore, no evidence could be found to suggest the former president made the comments during his most recent tour of the Volta region.

    Full Text

    A Facebook user suggests that John Mahama, National Democratic Congress’ Presidential candidate, has “confessed” to lying during campaign periods.

    “As politicians, before the masses can accept you and endorse you, you will have to do the unthinkable. You have to go beyond what you yourself believe you can do. If you have to lie to them, you do so, and this is our way of doing things as political actors,” Mr Mahama is reported to have said.

    Image source: Facebook.com

    According to the post, John Mahama made the confession during his Volta region tour. The post did not, however, mention the exact date of the said event where this claim was made.

    This same post has been carried on some social media news platforms, generating a multitude of shares and comments and has even been posted on YouTube with 3,352 views as of June 25th, 2020.

    We look at this claim in two ways:

    1. Did John Mahama confess to telling lies during his Volta Region Tour as reported by the abcnew.com newspaper?
    2. Has Mahama ever confessed to telling lies during campaigns?

    Verification

    www.abcnew.com newspaper and the ‘confessions’ of John Mahama: Did John Mahama confess to telling lies during his Volta Region Tour?

    Dubawa ran an online search for www.abcnew.com as shown in the image but found nothing. A Google Reverse Image Search on the image revealed no related photo or related content, suggesting that it may be a unique photo that has not existed prior to the claim being made.

    Also, the image with the circulating text seems to be from a newspaper with the name “www.abcnew.com” as seen in the image.

    Our search reveals that no newspaper exists by this name in Ghana.

    We, however, found abcnewsgh.com which also carried the same story on their website on their Facebook page. Although the portal did not use the same image as seen in the Facebook post, it carried the exact same text as seen in the photo.

    Dubawa tried contacting abcnewsgh.com to clarify the source of the claim but have been unable to reach the organisation. 

    Additionally,  we watched available videos of John Mahama’s recent Volta regional tours on Woezor TV, the NDC and John Mahama Facebook pages but could not find any evidence to support the claim.

    Considering who Mahama is, one would expect that such a claim, if made by him especially a few months before a major election, will be widely reported in mainstream media. However, an online search with keywords and the quote attributed to the former president all led to portals which appeared to have copied their stories from one source. No reputable mainstream media has published the said claim.

    ‘We lie during campaign’ – a confession by John Mahama? 

    Further online search into statements suggesting that John Mahama made such a claim led to the discovery of an article posted on modernghana. The article contained a video in which the former president in what seems to be his 2016 campaign tour, evidenced by the “Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana” backdrop, made some statements about politicians mixing truths and lies in the bid to win over voters. 

    The video linked to the story has been posted on Youtube with the caption, “President Mahama accepts and tells lies”. The former president could be heard making the claims transcribed below:

    Mahama: A lot of times, when it gets to election time, every political party begins to hustle and so whatever you will say to get people’s hearts to turn towards you, is what you say. And so if it’s a lie, you include it, if it’s the truth, you include it. We jumble it all together. The truth is there but we won’t say it but then we will mix it with lies.

    Dubawa found a lengthier version of the video, providing a clearer context of what the former president said during a mini-rally at Kade in the Eastern Region in 2016.

    Transcript: 0:48 – 3:37

    Mahama: “Governance is not easy. It is something that demands patience. It demands wisdom, experience and strength. A lot of times, when someone is doing something, and someone is standing by, if you listen to the bystander speak, you would think the person standing by is capable of doing the work better than the person who is actually doing the work. That is why the white man said, “it is easier said than done.” If you go to a stadium, you will think that the spectators can play better than Adre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan because you will hear them say, they should have played it like this. If it was me, I would play it like this. And so as for talk, it’s cheap. Those of us doing the work, what is important is that we be focused and just continue to do the work the people of Ghana voted us to do. Recently, our brothers said that the NHIS has run down. So what we are saying is that, if NHIS is run down, why is it that you the NPP are making NHIS cards for your people? If the work is run down, then what is the use of the card? Why are you making these NHIS cards for your people at no cost? But it is run down, so stop giving out the cards then. What has happened is that the NHIS has expanded. When we started in 2005, by 2008, the people who went to the hospital were only 9 million. Last year in 2015, the people who went to the hospital were 29 million. A lot of times, when it gets to election time, every political party begins to hustle and so whatever you will say to get people’s hearts to turn towards you, is what you say. And so if it’s a lie, you include it, if it’s the truth, you include it. We jumble it all together. The truth is there but we won’t say it but then we will mix it with lies. As for us, we know that God who is above is the one who knows what is true and what is a lie,” John Mahama said.

    In the transcript, Mahama suggests during a 2016 campaign tour, that a bid to win over electorates during elections, some politicians tell lies, some truths and half-truths. 

  • False! John Mahama did not ‘spray’ cash to supporters in Berekum

    Social media users claim Former President John Mahama shared cash to party supporters during a campaign tour in Berekum. 

    While one of the videos used as the basis for the claim is a 2016 campaign video, the others showed him sharing an item that is black with white straps and a white towel but not money. 

    Full text

    Many social media users claim that Ghana’s former president and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 elections, John Dramani Mahama, has been captured on video distributing cash to some party supporters during a campaign tour in Berekum in the Bono region. 

    The claims have been made on pro-government Facebook pages including NPP projects bureau and on Twitter. The posts have gained more than 8,000 views. 

    The claims are accompanied by a video that shows the former president standing out of a vehicle’s sunroof while the vehicle and others in the convoy are mobbed by several individuals clad in colours of the NDC; red, white, green and black. 

    Some news portals such as GhPage also indicated that the presidential candidate distributed money to supporters: “The NDC Presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama in the course of his campaign tour has visited Berekum in the Bono Region today 28th September 2020. John Mahama in the middle of his street cavalcade pulled wads of cash from his car and gave it to some of the crowded party adherents on the streets.” 

    The official Twitter page of the NDC has, through a statement signed by James Agyenim-Boateng, the party’s campaign spokesperson, denied the claims of John Mahama distributing money. 

    “The said reports are untrue and completely borne out of the desperate and fertile imaginations of the author(s)… As it has become typical of Mr. Mahama on his campaign tour of the regions, he shares JOHN MAHAMA 2020 branded nose masks to people…,” the NDC’s statement indicated. 

    We investigated the claims. 

    Verification

    We have seen two different videos making the rounds on social media, all making the claim that the NDC flagbearer was sharing money to party supporters during his campaign tour. 

    We fact-checked each of the videos below: 

    Video 1, shared on the NPP Projects Bureau Facebook page on 28th September 2020 with the caption “This is video of John Mahama sharing Money in Berekum, where the Nose Masks, Apron and T-shirts they claimed to be sharing not money? December 7 will expose you!!” 

    A reverse image search conducted on some frames of the video showed that it is an old video of Mahama on a campaign. The results matched a similar video uploaded by Joy News to their YouTube channel on September 21, 2016. 

    In both videos, John Mahama is seen in a black polo shirt and a white baseball cap. The background visuals were the same. 

    A google search on the subject showed news reports pointing to the video being taken at Abossey Okai in Accra in 2016.

    Given the evidence above, we find the NPP Projects Bureau’s claim that Video 1 was evidence of John Mahama sharing money in Berekum in 2020 to be false.  

    Video 2

    Shared by a twitter user who is prone to sharing Pro-NPP content on his timeline, the second video shows John Mahama on his recent Berekum visit. The video is accompanied with the text; “John Mahama sharing money on his campaign tour in Berekum, Bono Region. Is Government Official One that desperate? Votes buying come inside? #RejectConMahama”.

    The NDC presidential candidate is seen standing out of the sunroof of his vehicle in a deep blue shirt and with many of his followers surrounding the vehicle. Although the video is dark and not very clear, it is noticeable that he does at a point hand out something to some people. 

    At exactly 16 seconds into the 42-second video, John Mahama is seen taking and handing out the item to someone around the front-side of the vehicle and later tossing another into the crown on his left.

    We were able to find a fuller version of the same video shared by a Facebook user, Enoch Kofi Nyarkoh with the caption: “John Mahama sharing money on his campaign tour in Berekum..Asem no aye kese oooo.” That video has been watched more than 9,000 times. 

    Analyzing the video in slow motion and in reverse motion between 19 seconds and 25 seconds, we found that the items handed out to the supporters were black with a touch of white. 

    The first frame showed the NDC flagbearer slide the item down the vehicle windscreen. The second frame shows him holding the black item while the third frame gives a better view of the item after he tossed it into the crowd. 

    The nature of the item and how it was tossed does not prove to be money. 

    A further online search of videos on Mahama’s Berekum tour revealed another video originally shared from a live video taken by NDC’s Campaign Spokesperson, James Agyenim Boateng’s on the Berekum tour.

    At the 10 seconds mark of the video, the white piece of cloth which looked like a little towel was tossed into the crowd by the NDC flagbearer. 

    The object seen in no way appears to be money as claimed. 

    Conclusion

    Based on the evidence above, we conclude that the item John Mahama gave to party supporters on his tour of Berekum is not money as claimed.

    The reporter, Jonas Nyabor, produced this fact-check under the auspices of the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship in partnership with Citinewsroom to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and to enhance media literacy in the country.

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