Rescue SADA from collapsing

Prof. Kwame Karikari, the Former Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has called for structural adjustment to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to stop it from failing.

He said SADA should be all-inclusive to achieve socio-economic development, adding that it should be a national programme for Ghanaians and its structures and actualization must be seen as such.

Prof. Karikari said it was not in the interest of the immediate beneficiaries, the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions or the country as a whole to design structures to give the impression that only people from the three regions could develop the northern part of the country.

He said this during the 10th “Kronti ne Akwamu,” lecture on the topic: “The Paradox of Voice without Accountability in Ghana” organized by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD- Ghana).

Prof. Karikari said during regime of late President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the demand for the rapid development of the northern sector was not just patronizing gesture from southern politicians.

He said the demand was driven and led by chiefs, political leaders and representatives from the region.

Prof. Karikari said support for the northern part of the country was born out of concern for all round national development that would benefit all Ghanaians just as the development of any other region benefitted the whole country.

He said the generation of chiefs, public servants, political leaders and members of the middle class from the northern part of the country were the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the generation of the Bawumias, Asumdas, Dombos, Braimahs and others.

Prof. Karikari said, “I expect the leaders of the north, especially those in the current government, to take advantage of the national consensus more than anyone else in promoting the development of the north through the establishment of SADA”.

Prof Karikari told the GNA in an interview that SADA was a policy which had been endorsed by regimes as well as political parties to achieve a common goal of developing the northern part of the country.

He said the government’s decision to involve only people from the northern part of the country was not the best and this had contributed to its disappointment.

Mr. Francis Tsegah, Senior Research Fellow at CDD-Ghana explained that the lecture series serve as a platform for distinguished scholars and practitioners around the world whose work focused on democracy-building and fostering good governance.