On Friday, October 10, 2025 The Chronicle published a front-page story with the headline: “Mosquito, Julius Debrah Have No Chance to Succeed Mahama – Mussa Dankwah.” When the paper hit the newsstands, Mr. Mussa Dankwah picked up the electronic version circulating on social media, wrote “fake news” across it, and shared it online. He accompanied the post with his own poll results, insisting that The Chronicle got it wrong and that he never said Mosquito and Julius Debrah had no chance to succeed Mahama.
Mr. Mussa Dankwah did not stop there. He went further to record a short video in Akan, stating that he never made such comments and that The Chronicle could have done better. He again attached our front page to the video before sharing it widely. We also read a report by GhanaWeb, which quoted Mr. Mussa Dankwah as saying that we had reported fake news.
Before addressing the substance of the matter, we wish to make it clear that The Chronicle has nothing against Mr. Mussa Dankwah. Our publication was not an attack on his person, but part of our duty as journalists.
In the build-up to the 2024 general elections, Mr. Nussa Dankwah released series of opinion polls projecting victory for then-candidate John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). These projections angered a section of the public, especially supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who accused him of conducting unscientific polls and questioned his qualifications, since he had no formal background in Political Science. Some radio commentators even argued that his work was a disgrace to Political Science research.
Despite these criticisms, all of his predictions for the 2024 elections came true. President Mahama won the presidential election by a wide margin and the NDC secured nearly two-thirds of parliamentary seats. This achievement earned Mr. Mussa Dankwah both national and international recognition as an authority in opinion polling.
The Chronicle is proud of his accomplishments and hope that he continues to extend his expertise beyond Ghana to other African countries and even to Europe. Indeed, what the white man can do, the black man can do equally well. For someone with an accounting background to become an authority in opinion polling deserves the support of all Ghanaians.
However, our admiration for him does not mean we should remain silent over the unfair attack he has launched against us. In the story in question, nowhere did we link our publication to his latest opinion poll that placed Mr. Haruna Iddrisu ahead. It was, therefore, misleading for him to suggest that we had misrepresented the import of his findings.
Our story was sourced from Citi FM, one of Ghana’s most reputable radio stations, during a panel discussion on Big Issue, a programme that analyses major headline news stories. In the discussion, Mr. Mussa Dankwah made a number of statements that we quoted accurately in our story.
For clarity, we reproduce some of the statements by Mr. Mussa Dankwah that formed the basis of our report: “There’s going to be demographic changes in NDC delegates. At the moment, NDC delegates are a lot younger than their NPP counterparts and this trend is expected to intensify. If the delegates become predominantly young, it will make it very difficult for the older candidates.
“There’s nothing you can do about demographic change, it happens naturally. It’s a consensus across every demographic. They have likely seen how the older generation has performed and want to try something different.”
In his rebuttal, Mr. Dankwah argued that he had not conducted any opinion poll among NDC delegates. But as the quotes above clearly show, he did state that NDC delegates are becoming younger and that this shift could make things difficult for older candidates. The question, then, is: who are these older candidates he referred to? Are they not Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and Mr. Julius Debrah, who are reportedly preparing to contest for the NDC flagbearership?
What The Chronicle did was interpretative journalism, a widely accepted practice globally. Our story was based on context and analysis of his own statements we did not twist his words or fabricate quotes. As a credible newspaper read by the middle class and policymakers, The Chronicle would be the last to publish fake news. Our discerning readers can attest that the story we published last Friday was not fake, as Mr. Mussa Dankwah claimed.
We acknowledge that our publication might have placed the pollster under pressure, prompting a hasty reaction before he had even read the full story. We are human and, like all journalists, can make mistakes. When that happens, we readily admit and correct them. But in this case, as we have demonstrated, our story was based on facts and fair interpretation.
Interpretative journalism is not sensationalism; it provides readers with context and meaning to understand the implications of statements or events. That was precisely what The Chronicle did — interpreting Mr. Mussa Dankwah’s comments within the context of internal NDC discussions about who might succeed former President Mahama.
It is, therefore, unfortunate that Mr. Mussa Dankwah chose to label our story as fake without verifying its content. Such claims unfairly undermine the credibility of professional journalists and diminish public trust in responsible media institutions.
Nevertheless, despite our disappointment, The Chronicle continues to hold Mr. Mussa Dankwah in high esteem for his contribution to Ghana’s democratic discourse. His work has helped improve public understanding of voter behaviour and strengthened the culture of data-driven political analysis. We believe he has an important role to play in shaping how political research and elections are discussed across Africa.
While we firmly stand by our story and reject the claim of fake news, we extend our best wishes to Mr. Mussa Dankwah.
We hope that future disagreements between analysts and the media will be handled with mutual respect and fairness. Constructive engagement, rather than public attacks, will best serve our democracy and the pursuit of truth in Ghana’s growing media landscape.
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