They are back! Yes, the guinea fowls of the John Dramani Mahama era that were believed to have flown to neighboring Burkina Faso, have returned home.
And even better, they are safe and in protected custody.
Well, that is the assertion of the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Gregory Andrews, in a post he made on his Twitter handle.
In 2014, the management of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SAD) made hilarious media headlines when they disclosed in one of their responses to the whereabouts of the hundreds of guinea fowls they claimed to be rearing, that the birds had flown to Burkina Faso.
Their response followed fact-finding visits by journalists to the facility where the animals were being reared by the Asongtaba Cottage Industry at Sumbrungu near Bolgatanga in the Upper East region.
The media, during the numerous visits, only spotted a handful of birds contrary to reports that they were in hundreds, in justification of the huge sums of money government sunk into the project.
Although later, the Chief Executive Officer SADA, Mr. Charles Abugri, said it was a joke, Ghanaians have not stopped taking swipes at the Mahama administration for the comment.
And, as a way of justification or purely sarcasm, Gregory Andrews posted that, "Someone told me Ghana’s guinea fowl once flew to Burkina Faso. But they were definitely back @MolePark last week when I was there."
Attached with a video of some guinea fowls he spotted at the Mole National Park, the diplomat also explained how he could not also deny the tempting thoughts he was having on dipping his hands into a bowl of fufu or banku, beautifully adorned by the guinea fowls.
"In the National Park they are of course protected, but it didn’t stop me thinking how delicious they would be in light soup with fufu or banku," he teased.
Someone told me Ghana’s guinea fowl once flew to Burkina Faso. But they were definitely back @MolePark last week when I was there. In the National Park they are of course protected, but it didn’t stop me thinking how delicious they would be in light soup with fufu or banku. pic.twitter.com/XzxaivWJp1
— Gregory Andrews (@AusAmbGHA) April 11, 2021