PRESS RELEASE BY NORTHERN GHANA YOUTH NETWORK FOR DEVELOPMENT (NGYND) ON RECENT CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING SADA.

The Northern Ghana Youth Network for Development (NGYND) expresses worry about the unending controversies surrounding the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) initiative. The controversies in the view of NGYND will muddy the waters and confuse the minds of the teeming populace of Northern Ghana since they already have little or no knowledge at all about the SADA initiative.

NGYND also notes with grieve the unbridled partisan politicization of SADA, this has created the impression in the minds of many as though SADA belongs to a certain political party or some few individuals in government and for that matter must be antagonized by people on the other side of the political divide. This perception has gained grounds because there has not been any conscious effort by officials currently at the helm of affairs of SADA to sensitize and enlighten the people about the essence of SADA and its implications on the general development of the people in the Savanna Belt of Ghana. It is so strange that three years into the infant stages of SADA, majority of northerners including the youth still do not know about SADA. For the past three years issues about SADA continue to remain at the top echelon of the northern elite.

NGYND is also worried about the processes leading to the recruitment of management personnel for the SADA Secretariat. Signals that we have had in the last few days point to the fact that a well known top politician is at the verge of being appointed to head SADA. Government is therefore cautioned to thread with caution about the likely negative implications of recruiting political party faithfuls into the top management of SADA. The recruitment process should be undertaken with fairness, transparency, competence and merit. Anything otherwise will deepen the politically bias perceptions that people already have about SADA.

We finally urge the Board and interim management of SADA to move beyond the elite of northern Ghana to publicly engage people at the grass root and rural levels of the north of Ghana since they are the vulnerable and form the broad base likely beneficiaries of the positive impact that SADA may be coming with. Government should also speed up facilitation of the process of helping the Board of SADA to raise the needed seed capital and wooing the appropriate investors into northern Ghana to realize the dreams of SADA.

Long Live the SADA initiative, Long Live Northern Ghana.

…….SIGNED……….

Muhammed A. Yakubu

Team Leader, NGYND