MPs Clash Over Guinea Fowl

But for the intervention of the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, discussions on a GH�12m Guinea Fowl investment made by the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), would have degenerated into something else, when three MPs clashed over the subject matter. The MPs are MP for Effutu constituency, Hon. Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul (both from the Minority side) and the Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak (from the Majority side). The MP for Efutu, Afenyo-Markin, while contributing to the debate on the 2013 Budget Estimates of the Office of Government Machinery, yesterday alluded to the fact that details of the numerous investments made by SADA in 2012 ought to have been brought to the House for proper scrutiny. The office of the SADA had responded to the Select Committee on Finance that it spent an amount of GH�91,249,000 on its activities for the year 2012. Out of this figure, operation expenses amounted to GH�20,029,000 while the remaining GH�71,220,000 was invested in various projects some of which include Agricultural Input Support, Key Human Development, Afforestation, Guinea Fowl, Roads and Highways and Tractors. An amount of GH�33,000,000 was used for afforestation exercise, while GH�12,000,000 was invested in the Guinea Fowl Project. SADA is an independent agency operating under the Office of the President. It is responsible for coordinating a comprehensive development agenda for the northern savannah ecological zone in Ghana. The area comprises the three Northern regions of Ghana namely, Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region, and stretches to include districts contiguous to the Northern region that are located North of Brong-Ahafo and north of the Volta region. SADA constitutes Ghana�s response to effects of climate change associated with floods and draught. The agency�s main thrust is to promote sustainable development using the notion of a forested and green north to catalyze climate change reversal and improve livelihoods of the most vulnerable citizens in the area. According to Mr. Afenyo-Markin, looking at the huge investment made by the Authority, all in an attempt to bridge the developmental gab between the North and South, it was proper for SADA to have furnished the House with the details of the said projects. �Mr. Speaker, I agree that it was important for government to reconcile what is happening in the Northern Sector and what is happening in the Southern Sector. The initiative to invest in various projects in the Savannah areas is welcomed. However, in a situation where government invests GH�33 million into afforestation and another GH�12 million into Guinea Fowl project, Mr. Speaker, if government is making investment through SADA to help alleviate poverty, we all support it but the specifics ought to be furnished for all of us to satisfy ourselves that indeed, these are proper investments, and that there are no diversions, and that these are investments that the returns will yield positive results,� he noted. His argument did not go down well with the Majority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase, Hon. Muntaka, who, perhaps did not get the import of what his colleague had said.