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John Dramani Mahama, has refuted claims that guinea fowls under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) initiative flew to Burkina Faso during his presidency in 2014.
In 2014, SADA made headlines when reports suggested that some guinea fowls from the project had migrated to neighboring Burkina Faso.
During a media engagement in Bolgatanga, wrapping up his tour of the Upper East Region, Mahama dismissed these allegations as untrue. He clarified that the project involved an incubation process, where day-old chicks were to be distributed to farmers for rearing, rather than keeping all the birds in one enclosed area.
Mahama criticized the media for widely publishing the story without fully understanding the project’s details. “No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso. Guinea fowls are not migratory birds, and the project was not meant to show thousands of guinea fowls in one place. It was designed to incubate the eggs and provide day-old chicks to farmers,” he explained.
He recounted that the miscommunication began when someone asked a watchman about the guinea fowls’ whereabouts, and the watchman jokingly said they had gone to Burkina Faso and would return in the rainy season. This comment was misinterpreted and published by the media, leading to widespread belief in the false narrative. “As a result, the project died. But I believe it’s a project we can revisit,” Mahama said.
The former president also noted that the project included an elaborate plan to process mature guinea fowls at a plant and distribute them to market centers across the country. “There was supposed to be a processing plant to buy the guinea fowls from households, process them, and transport them in frozen trucks to southern markets. Unfortunately, the project faced criticism and issues, and the media perpetuated the story that the guinea fowls had flown to Burkina Faso,” he added.
Source:Omanghana.com
