General News of Sunday, 17 May 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

#KickNanaOut: AFP 'exposé' triggers anti-Akufo-Addo campaign on social media

President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo

#KickNanaOut, a crusade intended to highlight the ills of the Akufo-Addo administration is waging on social media as some Ghanaians express their dissatisfaction with the performance of the government.

The President has come under fire after French News Agency (AFP) called him out for peddling falsehood in his claim that the country has administered more tests per million people than any other country in Africa.

“Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo claimed in a speech that his country had administered more COVID-19 tests per million people than any other country in Africa. However, the claim is false; AFP has found from available statistics that Ghana comes behind South Africa and at least two other African countries”.

“The president made the statement on May 10 in a televised broadcast about the novel coronavirus pandemic, which was also widely viewed on Facebook”, wrote AFP.

“But the claim is false. To verify this, AFP compared available data from Ghana to that of five other countries: Nigeria, the most populous African nation; South Africa, which has administered the highest number of tests overall according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; and Mauritius, Botswana and Djibouti, because while much smaller in population, these countries have conducted relatively high numbers of tests” excerpts of the AFP story reads.

The ‘expose’ immediately triggered serious conversations on social media as a section of the general public took to Twitter to voice out their concerns.

A chunk of the tweets are about the ‘dishonesty and lies’ of the Akufo-Addo administration while a handful are reactions to a message of threat sent to actress Lydia Forson, an actress.

Below are some tweets