By: Maame Efua Kwaduah
John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, has refuted claims that guinea fowls under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) project migrated to Burkina Faso during his presidency in 2014.
Mahama, speaking at a media engagement in Bolgatanga at the end of his Upper East Region tour, clarified that the project involved incubating day-old guinea fowl chicks, which were then to be distributed to farmers, not keeping large numbers of birds in one location.
He criticized the media for misreporting the project, which led to the false belief that guinea fowls had flown to Burkina Faso.
According to him, a watchman’s comment about the birds “going to Burkina Faso” was misinterpreted and widely publicized without understanding the project’s actual goals.
“And so somebody came and asked the watchman, ‘where are the guinea fowls? And the watchman said, they go Burkina Faso, they go come back in the rainy season. The media went and published it. And after that, there are people who believe that there were some guinea fowls that flew to Burkina Faso. So that project died. But I think it is a project we can look at again,” he said.
Mr. Mahama outlined that the project included plans for processing the mature guinea fowls at a processing plant and distributing them across the country.
However, he said the project faced issues and criticism, which, combined with the misleading reports, led to its downfall.