Bawumia bemoans lack of commitment to SADA

The 2012 NPP Vice-Presidential Candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has bemoaned NDC’S lack of commitment to SADA.

According to Dr Bawumia, SADA should be a development tool and not an election tool of the NDC.

This was contained in a press release issued from the office of Dr Bawumia.

Speaking at Lawra on the ‘restoration of hope tour’ with Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia likened the NDC’s approach to the SADA programme to a mason who wanted to build a house without knowing the plan.

He told the teeming crowd that after copying Nana Akufo-Addo’s original idea of the Northern Development Authority, the NDC renamed it SADA without recourse to the original conception and vision and as a result botched an opportunity to bridge the gap between the north and the south.

“Can SADA tell us with certainty what projects they will be completing in the next five years? Today if you ask the NDC what concrete projects are going to be accomplished within the next five to 10 years, they will not be able to tell you. If you ask them their source of funding, they will not be able to tell you.

The financing for SADA is currently under a model called “lalasulala” financing,” he said to a cacophony of applause from the teeming crowd.

The NDC in 2008 promised GH¢200 million seed capital and GH¢100 each year. By that we should have GH¢500 today. “Six months ago, GH¢100 million was allocated for SADA, and up till today, that has not been delivered because they say SADA does not have a plan but when it came to judgement debts, the NDC clearly had a plan.

If SADA does not have a plan, it means the NDC government did not understand the programme. For three-and-half years, the evidence of SADA anywhere in the north has been lacking and this is even more serious when five months to the election we are suddenly witnessing the distribution of tractors without a laid-out plan. If SADA does not have a plan, where do the 100 tractors fit in? SADA has become a sad excuse for northern development,” he emphasised.

“Nana Akufo-Addo is coming with a northern development programme which will be fully planned, fully costed and with a dedicated source of funding. We will know clearly what we want to achieve in five to 10 years and move away from the ad hoc policies and gimmickry characterising SADA today. We should get ready for a new economy in Ghana under Nana,” he told the crowd.

The Upper West leg of the restoration tour saw the team receiving an inspiring welcome on Monday from the people of Wa. So far, the team has toured Lambusie, Lawra, Nandom and Jirapa.