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Claim: Social media users, including X and YouTube users, published a video claiming President Akufo-Addo has responded to Dr Bawumia for saying his role as vice president primarily involves advisory duties, thereby absolving him of full blame for the government’s challenges.
Verdict: Misleading. The video is old. It was taken in August 2023. The comment made by President Akufo-Addo was not explicitly directed at Dr Bawumia. It was an advice to party members ahead of its presidential primaries in 2023.
Full Text
Critics have scrutinised the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer, Mahamudu Bawumia, following his presentation of his vision for Ghana last Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024, at the UPSA auditorium. Central to his address were the policies he intends to implement if elected President in the forthcoming general elections. However, his assertion that he merely served in an advisory capacity to the President as the head of the Economic Management Team (EMT) has sparked widespread public criticism.
Given this, social media users like @AnnanPerry and @Beatrice_Annan1 have said the president is not happy with the vice president’s comments.
In the claim, one of the users said, “Akufo-Addo is annoyed with Bawumia for distancing himself from his government.”
However, President Akufo-Addo said:
“What do we gain by attacking the record of our own government? When you do that, then you become a party candidate; what are you going to tell the people of Ghana? That there was Akufo-Addo who misled and mismanaged affairs, and that I will be different. Even though I am NPP, I am still under Osono [elephant] sign. I am different, and the people of Ghana will be that gullible. Let’s be serious.”
The published video on X has received over 95,000 views and over 1,000 likes on the platform.
Verification
The initial question DUBAWA aimed to address was whether the video was directed toward the NPP flagbearer, Dr Bawumia, following his public address on his vision for Ghana. Using an Invid Video Verification tool, DUBAWA authenticated the video by breaking the footage into keyframes. Subsequently, a Google Reverse Images Search was conducted on the keyframes, leading to the discovery of a snippet of the video published on August 5, 2023, by Facebook user Beatrice Annagfio.
This indicates that the video originally published by TV3 was released before the address by the NPP’s flagbearer on Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024. The footage was captured before the onset of the presidential primaries. Within the video, President Akufo-Addo underscored the need for the NPP parliamentary contestants to safeguard the government’s records and achievements.
However, it’s noteworthy that the video was not directed towards Dr Bawumia. The resharing of the viral video aligns with Bawumia’s assertion that his role as vice president primarily involves advisory duties, thereby absolving him from full blame for the government’s challenges. Critics, however, argue that Dr Bawumia cannot distance himself from the country’s current economic situation.
Conclusion
The originating video is dated August 2023 and was not aimed at Dr Bawumia, as President Akufo-Addo was addressing party members in the video before the NPP presidential elections, urging them to help safeguard the party’s achievements.
