No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso – Mahama on infamous ‘akonfem’ saga
In a recent media engagement in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, addressed the long-standing allegations surrounding the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) guinea fowl project during his presidency in 2014.
Mahama emphatically debunked claims that guinea fowls under the initiative flew to Burkina Faso, stating, “No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso. Guinea fowls are not migratory birds, and the project was not for you to come and see thousands of guinea fowls in one place. It was supposed to incubate the eggs and give the guinea fowls’ day-old chicks to farmers.”
He explained that the project aimed no to support farmers through an incubation process, not concentrate the birds in an enclosed area. Mahama criticized the media for publishing misinformation without proper understanding, leading to the project’s demise.
Mahama recounted a humorous anecdote, “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.”
The former president highlighted the project’s elaborate plan, which included processing mature guinea fowls in a plant and transporting them to market centers across the country. “There was supposed to be a processing plant so that the guinea fowls would be bought off the households and processed. And they would put them in frozen trucks to send them down to the south to the market.”
Mahama concluded by emphasizing the potential of the project and the need to revisit it. “Unfortunately, the project ran into issues. The media criticised it, and they came and said the guinea fowls had flown to Burkina Faso. But I think it is a project we can look at again.”
