Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Where did SADA go wrong?

AS I wrote this piece my heart was bleeding. Angry voices blurred from my little radio set. I could hear a gentleman from a civil society group in Tamale swearing fire and brimstone should President John Mahama not axe Dr Charles Jebuni, who has been asked to act as Chief Executive Officer for the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) following the exit of Alhaji Gilbert Iddi.
 
In 2010, the enthusiasm was at a crescendo as the SADA Law (Act 805, 2010) was passed and subsequently inaugurated to begin work. There had been so much rhetoric about the need for the establishment of a body to spearhead an agenda to quicken the pace of development in the north.
 
So the goose to lay the golden eggs was finally hatched and it became a popular refrain, particularly from politicians, that SADA would offer a quick fix to the problems of the north, such as unemployment, poor road networks, ailing agriculture, environmental degradation, high illiteracy, name them.
 
So what went wrong? What has happened to all the expectations and promises? How could a beautiful initiative suddenly go bad?