How Mahama, Akufo-Addo have contributed to spreading misinformation

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama have become subjects of scrutiny by some concerned citizens and organizations over what has been described as their ‘unintended’ contribution to the menace of misinformation.

Since the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus in the country, there has been an unhealthy dose of misinformation and fake news in the system most of which seem to suggest possible modes of treatment for the virus and other related information.

However, politicians, on the other hand, seem to be capitalizing on the fight against the virus to score some political points by either touting past glories or adding up to unfulfilled promises.

These from their perspective, are meant to spread calm, not fear or perhaps have undertones of campaign strategies ahead of the December polls.

But this has not entirely ended well for the flagbearers of the two main political parties in the country – NPP and NDC – as some fact-checkers refuse to be boxed into absorbing every statement they make.

This is why!

During the commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day, former President John Mahama in a Facebook Live session, appreciating the diverse contributions of media practitioners to the nation made claims which could not be verified.

While striking a comparison on the level of press freedom between his administration and the ruling government, he is quoted to have stated categorically that, “During my tenure as President of Ghana, we became the country with the highest levels of press freedom in Africa. At the time, we were ranked number one out of 54 countries in Africa. We also placed 28 in the global ranking among 180 countries. Three and half years later, we have slumped seven places on the global ranking and lost the number slot in Africa to Namibia, and Cape Verde."

But per GhanaWeb’s fact-check, the former president’s claim turned out to be false.



The check revealed that Ghana’s worst performance was in 2013 when his administration took office where it ranked 30 and its best was in 2015 ranking 22. For the period of John Mahama’s tenure, Ghana in the world rankings placed 41st in 2012, 30th in 2013, 27th in 2014, 22nd in 2015 and then 26th in 2016.

In 2012 when John Mahama succeeded the John Evans Atta Mills as Acting President, Ghana was ranked 6th in Africa behind Zambia on the press freedom rankings.

In what appeared to be a ‘battle’ of misinformation, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was also called out by Agence France-Presse (AFP) for making some false statements with regards to Ghana’s feat in the COVID-19 fight.

Under the bold headline, “Ghana leader falsely claims his country fronts Africa's COVID-19 testing,” the fact-checking team by the French news agency laid their evidence bare for public perusal.

President Akufo-Addo during his ninth address to the nation on updates to Ghana's enhanced response to the Coronavirus pandemic said, “Our country has administered more tests per million people than any other country in Africa, and, in fact, the World Health Organization... has reached out to us to share our sample-pooling experience with other African countries, so they can adopt this strategy and also ramp up their testing capabilities.”

But this was, but one of the several doses of misinformation.

Per statistics outlined by the AFP, Ghana places at least 4th on the list of African countries that have conducted more tests per million people. In fact, countries like Mauritius, Djibouti and South Africa shared the top three spots, respectively.

Well, as per usual, these instances were carried on the political wings as several political personalities from opposing sides leveraged on the two instances to either solicit votes or drag the other in ‘murky waters’. Even a social media hashtag interestingly sprang up, canvassing support to kick Akufo-Addo out.

For the avoidance of doubt, however, storyful.com, a leading social media intelligence agency explains misinformation as inaccurate information or content that is unintentionally or mistakenly shared. The implication, with misinformation, is that the person sharing it doesn’t know that it’s inaccurate.