Screenshot of the edited video on WhatsApp
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
CLAIM: A circulating nine-second edited video clip on WhatsApp, shared with the caption “SLPP ADMITS FAILURE,” claims that the Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education publicly admitted that the SLPP-led government has failed.
VERDICT: Misleading! The Deputy Minister’s words were taken from a four-minute video produced by Truth Media, but the excerpt circulating on WhatsApp removes the necessary context. His statement referred specifically to Sierra Leone’s performance on the MCC Government Effectiveness Indicator, not an admission that the government “has failed.” Truth Media has since issued a public clarification acknowledging that the clip and quote card were misleading without providing full context.
FULL TEXT
A nine-second video clip, circulating widely on WhatsApp, claims that the “SLPP ADMITS FAILURE.” The clip shows the Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education, Bockarie Abdel A. Bawoh, saying,
“We have not been effective; if we had been, you would not see this kind of scorecard.”
The short clip was shared with a bold caption asserting that the SLPP government has admitted to failing, fuelling a narrative that government officials have acknowledged overall governance failure.
Given the potential of such political claims to distort public perception and influence public trust in government institutions, DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim and determine whether the viral caption accurately reflects what the Deputy Minister meant.
Given the potential of such political claims to distort public perception and undermine public trust in government institutions, DUBAWA, an authoritative voice in government communication, decided to fact-check the claim and determine whether the viral caption accurately reflects what the Deputy Minister meant.
VERIFICATION
The edited nine-second clip was traced to a longer four-minute video initially posted by Truth Media on November 24, 2025. The full version shows the Deputy Minister giving a detailed explanation of Sierra Leone’s performance on the MCC Government Effectiveness Indicator. This technical governance metric assesses administrative efficiency and institutional capacity.
A full review of the four-minute video reveals that the Deputy Minister was not admitting that the SLPP government had failed, but rather explaining why Sierra Leone scored poorly on that specific indicator. He referred to structural and historical challenges within the civil service, long-standing bureaucratic inefficiencies, and the funding constraints that affect government effectiveness across African states.
When viewed in its proper context, the statement clearly pertains to a single technical performance indicator, rather than a blanket admission of political failure.
The distortion became even clearer when Truth Media itself issued a public statement acknowledging that the short excerpt and accompanying quote card did not fully capture the meaning or context of the Deputy Minister’s remarks. According to Truth Media, the statement.
“We have not been effective; if we had been, you would not see this kind of scorecard,” was taken from a much broader discussion on governance indicators and may therefore have been misunderstood by viewers who did not watch the whole program. They further confirmed that, after viewers raised concerns and the Ministry of Information reviewed the full interview, they updated their platform to include the necessary context. In their statement, Truth Media apologised for any discomfort caused by the initial excerpt to the Deputy Minister. It emphasised that there was no intention to misrepresent his views or portray him unfairly.
By isolating only nine seconds and pairing it with the caption “SLPP ADMITS FAILURE,” the edited clip alters the context, creating a misleading narrative.
The Deputy Minister did not admit that the SLPP government had failed.
He was commenting solely on a technical governance indicator within the MCC scorecard.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the SLPP government “admitted failure” is misleading. The caption was attached to a selectively edited nine-second clip that removes the broader explanation the Deputy Minister provided regarding Sierra Leone’s MCC Government Effectiveness Indicator score.
