The popular adage that… “Every misfortune is/has a blessing” will never be taken lightly by Northerners, but would forever remain a daily vocabulary or expression on their lips henceforth.
Indeed, this proverb is very gratifying in the sense that, if devastating floods in 2007 had not hit the three Northern Regions (Northern, Upper East and Upper West), the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Northern Development Fund (NDF) which later became the ruling National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), would not have been initiated.
It would be recalled that in 2007, the Northern Regions were hard hit by overwhelming floods that claimed lives and rendered over 500,000 people homeless. The natural disaster washed away thousands of farms, destroyed roads network and further compounded the hunger and poverty situations of the people which forced many of the youth to sojourn down South to engage in non-rewarding jobs like head-portering popularly known as ‘Kayayei’.
This was the regime of the NPP led by President John Agyekum Kufuor. The government at the time realized the destruction was so enormous that the whole North needed something more than just relief support. Thus, the Kufuor administration and citizens of the North quickly put together a well designed long-term development policy christened Northern Development Fund intended to solve most of the development needs and potentials of Northern Ghana as a whole.
It became a serious campaign promise in 2007 ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections in the following year. The NPP Presidential candidate at the time Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo pledged seed money of 1 billion dollars towards the launch of the NDF if he won the election.
As the campaign for political power became very intense, the NDC led by its flagbearer Professor John Evans Atta Mills who became timid because of the NPP’s huge promise, also pledged to establish SADA to deal with the development needs of Northerners if he was given the mandate to rule the country.
Luck however eluded the NPP’s candidate Nana Akuffo-Addo as he lost just by a small margin or percentage to the oldest flagbearer at the time (pardon me if am wrong) Prof. John Atta Mills.
According to an official document released under the authority of the Policy Unit at the Office of the Vice-President, SADA is an independent agency mandated by an act of parliament, ACT 805 of 2010 to coordinate a comprehensive development agenda for the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone of Ghana. The area comprises the three Northern Regions of Ghana and stretches to include districts contiguous to the Northern Region that are located North of Brong-Ahafo and North of the Volta Region.
The overall purpose of the NDC’s SADA is: (a) Plan, coordinate and facilitate implementation of a long-term strategy for the accelerated development of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.
(b) Provide dedicated, additional resources to support economic growth and sustained development in the Northern Savannah. (c) Create a Northern Savannah Growth Pole as one of the building blocks for Ghana’s march to middle-income country. (d) Improve conditions for Ghana to adapt to climate change in order to mitigate droughts and floods in the Northern Savannah. (e) Protect persons who are vulnerable and have been adversely affected by natural disasters. (f) Reduce poverty drastically, improve food security and secure lasting peace.
SADA will be governed by a 9-member board of Directors appointed in accordance with the highest professional and gender-balanced standards. The Board will provide policy and strategic direction and define the periodic investment directions of the authority, it added.
The document indicates that the SADA strategy is expected to be funded from four sources (a) seed-funding for SADA as mandated by parliament. This will be utilized to “kick-start” investments; (b) dedicated funding derived from a levy also mandated by parliament in the SADA Act 805; (c) support from Ghana’s development partners; and (d) regular resources leveraged through existing government of Ghana and private sector resources.
Meanwhile, ahead of the official launching of the SADA program in January, 2011, citizens and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) at a meeting in the Northern Region on November, 10, 2010, organized by the Northern Development Forum and SEND-Ghana, a non-governmental organization, called on government not to use resources allocated for the programme to address disaster problems that might arise. They argue that disaster problems are supposed to be addressed by government with resources from the national coffers.
They (women groups) also urged government to appoint women in some of the sensitive leadership positions like the Board of Directors to enable them make informed decisions that could have positive impact on women and children. Adding, 30 percent of funds should be allocated for women empowerment.
Citizens also demanded that the SADA Secretariat must be situated in the North and not in Accra to enable them get in touch with officials anytime the need arises. Adding that, this will also ensure strict monitoring of projects that would be executed.
The Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) later in a statement asked government why it is refusing to release an amount of 200 million Ghanaian cedis as seed money as well as 100 million Ghanaian cedis for investment in the area.
According to the pressure group, the provision of 25 million Ghanaian cedis for SADA in the 2010 and 2011 budgets respectively, is a raw deal for the people of the North.
The group’s argument is based on the fact that “Government has made it public that as a result of prudent management of the economy, the economy had recorded an unprecedented GDP of GH¢44.8 billion, making Ghana (attain) Middle Income Status, showing that the economy is resilient, the economy is sound, the economy is vibrant and yet they have failed to honour their promises to the people of Northern Ghana”.
Time will tell if the government is reneging on its campaign promise to the people, because NORPRA is cautioning that the limited allocation of resources to SADA will slow down efforts to improve the quality of life for people in Northern Ghana.
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