Was SADA meant to churn out white elephants?

Nantomah Mustapha UCC

The first time I heard any policy to be put in place to bridge the yawning development gap between the southern and northern parts of Ghana was in 2008 when Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo unveiled his plans for northern Ghana should he win the 2008 general election as the flag bearer of the NPP. The NNP stated among other things that they would institute a body known as the savanna development authority to see to it that it bridges the development gap between the north and the south of the country with a seed amount of one (1) billion Ghana cedis. The NDC as usual of them, quickly included it in their manifesto by renaming it as savanna accelerated development authority (SADA) with the same mission as savanna development authority of the NPP. The issue of who originated SADA is inconsequential once it is a policy worth pursuing.
As a manifesto promise, the NDC government was obliged to put SADA into action with the seriousness it deserved in 2009 after being sworn in for a four year term as the legitimate government. To the amazement of northerners however, the northern dominated NDC government treated SADA with gross levity. Reports that SADA was being provided with funds were issued on regular basis to score political points but absolutely nothing was done as a product or initiative of SADA. Upon investigation by concerned northern youth, it was ascertained that nothing in the form of funds was provided SADA. This irritated the northern youth resulting in their call for the resignation of the then vice president of the republic of Ghana John D. Mahama. The heat about SADA on the NDC government became more pronounced as the presidency was inundated with pressure from different youth movements from the three regions of the north to hit the ground running on SADA. This compelled the government to provide SADA with undisclosed funding.
For SADA to operate well, northerners were made to preside over its activities with the former northern regional minister Alhaji Gilbert Seidu Iddi as the chief executive. One would have thought that with a native, supposed to have the north at heart, in charge of affairs, SADA would have been a wonderful relief for northerners. More productive ventures such as irrigation facilities for the rural poor, revamping of abandoned factories such as the Bolga meat and tomato factories, scholarships for the brilliant but needy students among a host of others are were there to undertake. But the SADA boss together with his cronies decided to go otherwise by injecting a whopping amount of GHC 47 million(470 billion Ghana old cedis) into afforestation and guinea fowl farming projects for GHC 32 million and GHC 15 million each respectively. These projects have been authoritatively confirmed to be white elephants. But for the vigilance of our media especially Daily guide, no one would have discovered the rot in SADA.
Investigations on these projects revealed that only 600 guinea fowls and 20 eggs were there for the astonishing GHC 15 million project while the land for the GHC 32 million afforestation project was found to be a grazing field for goats and sheep with no single tree on it. The questions begging for answers are; are SADA executives really northerners? Wouldn’t the southerners ask us if they are really discriminatory towards us in terms of development? What is the President who is also a northerner doing about this issue of concern? Are these two failed projects the only projects so far undertaken by SADA? If there are other projects embarked upon by SADA, what is the success story of these projects?
Whatever the answers may be, I sincerely believe that we northerners are enemies of ourselves. It is about time we objected to these nefarious acts of our leaders and also ensure that checks and balances become integral part of SADA undertakings.