In a speech presented by CPP’s Ivor Greenstreet to outline his vision for the country, some of the claims he made did not stand the test of scrutiny. Out of six claims that were fact-checked by the MFWA team, three were found to be completely false. Furthermore, two claims were found to be mostly true, and one claim entirely true.
The claims made by Greenstreet were subjected to fact-checking by a dedicated team of seasoned journalists and researchers put together by Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) with support from the DW Akademie. The goal of this venture is to promote issue-based campaigning where political parties, their main actors, and other key stakeholders in the electioneering process become circumspect and factual in the claims they make. Below is a snapshot of the claims examined with a link for further details:
Claim: Just look around you, despite all the shouting about poverty declining, recent statistics show that 30% of the population is poor with 19% extremely poor.
Verdict: Completely False
Claim: Do you know that recent statistics show that 48% of Ghanaians between the ages of 15 to 24 have no job? And that figure they say is worse for women: 48% and I repeat 48% of Ghanaians between the ages of 15 to 24 are jobless.
Verdict: Completely False
Claim: Look at our educational profile. In South Korea 60% of the population has higher education while ours is 3%.
Verdict: Completely False
Claim: Inflation is up to 19% with interest rates at 35% and the cost of living is so so high for basic day to day things.
Verdict: Entirely True
Claim: We also have a creeping urbanization, sanitation and housing crisis. For example, just imagine, 53% of households in Accra occupy a single room
Verdict: Mostly True
Claim: 5 million Ghanaians don’t have access to toilets.
Verdict: Mostly True
Click here to read more details about these claims and the fact-checking results.
