Claim: Multiple accounts on social media have shared a postcard of Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, claiming ‘hardship’ under ex-President John Dramani Mahama in 2016 was far worse compared to the “hardship in Ghana” presently.
Verdict: False! DUBAWA’s investigation showed that the Veep, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, hasn’t made such claims on Kumasi-based Kapital Radio 97.1 FM as the postcard suggests. The radio station manager has maintained that political flyers circulating on social media recently with their tags do not emanate from them.
Full Text
Multiple accounts on social media have shared a postcard with a photo of Dr Bawumia asking Ghanaians to accommodate the hardships under his administration.
Bearing the theme, tags and digital stamps purporting to be that of Kapital Radio 97.1 FM, it read: “The hardship is more bearable than the 2016 hardship. When you check the hardship in terms of percentages, NPP has done better than Dr. Bawumia.”
DUBAWA’s research, however, revealed that popular social media influencer Annan Perry, popularly known as Kojo Dynamic, with over 53,000 followers, was the first to put out the postcard on October 3, 2024, at 09:54 PM on X (formerly Twitter).
With no caption attached to the post, Kojo Dynamic, with the handle @annanperry on X, had reached over 155,800 views, 592 comments, 519 retweets, 74 bookmarks, and 1,400 likes as of October 13, 2024.
A few moments and days after he shared the post, Kojo Dynamic, who describes himself as a “Youth activist, Socialist, Statistician, and leader,” had others believing his post, and some of them began posting on other platforms, causing the postcard to go viral.
Reacting to the post, an X user, Raphael Tumy, replied on October 5, 2024:
“You’re a flag bearer, and you have the nerve to insult Ghanaians like this? Do you think we’re measuring your performance against NDCs’? We’re measuring you based on your promises prior to and after. This is another plain insult to Ghanaians.”
Nonetheless, Joseph Nyarko, one X user, also had this to comment on October 4, 2024: “Country make hard, so u go make e soft small give we, u come worsen am, den u sana u no go admit say u disappoint we, u rather dey take do comparison. Chale. I have to be rich regardless. Y’all are liars, [SIC].”
Meanwhile, another X user with 6,095 followers, A-Jay, with the handle @nyavorx, garnered 36,800 views when he shared the same postcard on his X platform with the caption ‘Koo gimmie’. A-Jay’s post on Dr Bawumia’s hardship statement had 138 comments, 205 retweets and 556 likes, carrying enough weight and virality to arrest the attention of DUBAWA.
The same postcard can be found shared here, here, and here on X. It can also be seen on Threads here.
Verification
DUBAWA’s research showed that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has not made any statement comparing hardships under NDC and NPP.
The media outlet’s Managing Director, Korsi Asiseh, maintained on their website that political stories on flyers purportedly created by them are false.
DUBAWA also screened every recent social media post on Kapital Radio platforms, but the flier or postcard could not be found on any of their official pages.
“Beware of fake flyers circulating about our website putting up political stories,” he cautioned the public.
The findings of DUBAWA’s Google keyword search revealed that no reputable media organisation in the West African country has reported on Dr Bawumia’s alleged comment.
DUBAWA later contacted three of the X users who shared the flier to find out their source, but they have yet to respond to the inquiry.
Conclusion
Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has not made any statement comparing “hardship” under the NDC administration in 2016 to that of the NPP government in 2024.