Manasseh is a patriot and a true son of the North

SADA scandal: Manasseh is a patriot and a true son of the North

Manasseh Azure Awuni, who in his own words said he is a proud son of a watchman, is also in my estimation a proud son of the North and a proud and patriotic son of our dear mother land, Ghana, nothing more and nothing less.

He will forever earn my respect and admiration for exposing the gigantic rots and financial decay at the two of the nation’s most important anti-poverty institutions; Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

Quite significantly, the two institutions have among their core mandates been working to ensure the sustenance of the livelihood of the youth, the poor and the vulnerable in our population.

Both SADA and GYEEDA are state intervention programs targeted at a certain segment of the Ghanaian population in order to ensure and sustain social harmony, political stability and security of the nation.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned institutions had become conduits for siphoning state resources in hundreds of millions of Ghana Cedis and in the old currency, in trillions of Cedis.

In the light of the foregoing, this young, exuberant and meticulous journalist has been able, and without any support from the state to unravel the financial decadence that has engulfed these two important anti-poverty institutions.

In the case of GYEEDA, the state has been able to at least bring the financial hemorrhage to a halt and save the consolidated fund from further looting by these unpatriotic citizens.

Some of those indicted are still facing the long-arm of the law and some monies are to be retrieved for the state.

On SADA, whose revelations are on-going and where my attention would dwell most, the young man has done more than enough to deserve national honor and even international recognition.

The courage, perseverance, integrity and above all professionalism that the young man has brought into these investigations show that there is some hope for the future of the Ghanaian nation and its youth.

In the latest in the series of stories dubbed “SAD SADA STORY,” the audit report that he quoted accused “Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) of violating procurement laws in awarding a GHc32.4 million afforestation contract to ACI Construction Limited.

“ACI Construction Limited, which is a subsidiary of the AGAMS Group of Companies, was handed the contract without going through any competitive bidding.

“The audit recommends sanctions against former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SADA, Gilbert Seidu Iddi.

“ACI Construction Limited was registered in June 2010 by Roland Agambire and Miriam Ajavon.

Again, according to another report from Manasseh which was also in the audit report; SADA officials were asked to refund Eight Hundred and Thirty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc830, 000) to the authority.

“Two of the six who are board members, are supposed to pay back GH¢60,000 they received from SADA for performing unspecified administrative duties.

“Auditors said SADA could not produce any agreement between the management and the two board members which authorized them to carry out the administrative duties for fees or salaries amounting to GH?60,000 in addition to their monthly sitting allowances.

“In the 2012 farming season, SADA supplied 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two Service Providers at a time the farming season was over. Because of this, SADA lost over GH¢320,000. The auditors described the action as negligent and therefore recommended that those responsible refund the amount to SADA.

“Joy News Sources say the official in charge of the project is Dr Charles Jebuni, then Chief Technical Advisor to SADA and now acting CEO.

“Two other officials have also been asked to pay back GHc218, 000 Ghana cedis to SADA.

“The two, Dr. Emmanuel Abeere Imga and Abass Kassim Nyo, were given money to pay for carting maize produced by the beneficiary farmers from the farm gates to the service providers and the Authority’s warehouses.

“However, they accounted for only 35% of the amount and the audit report has asked them to refund the rest.

“Dr Abere Inga told Joy News he had produced receipts covering money he received.

“The former CEO of SADA, Gilbert Seidu Iddi has also been asked to refund some GHc226, 000 Ghana cedis to SADA, being the cost of unapproved trip to Turkey on behalf of some district assemblies.

The report has also ordered SADA to retrieve GHc6,000 “from a consultant, Kennedy Mohammed being the cost of a laptop the authority bought for him.

The audit report which has now become a public document is in the hands of most editors and producers of media outlets in the country and some Ghanaians and has also made other damning revelations including the exposures on the Plus One Investment Limited, a company owned and operated by young and inexperienced people, led by Mr. Dan Saaka Ahmed, a gentleman who is said to have a very shady character.

According to the audit report on page 16, the Gilbert Iddi-led management at SADA advanced a whopping GHc2, 771890 amounts to this company for production and investment in butter nut squash without any feasibility studies on the capabilities and the record of the company and its management.

Mr Dan Saaka Ahmed, who is said to be a native of Salaga in the Northern Region and a self-styled project manager of Plus One Investment Limited, was able to hide his corrupt record at Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) to the management of SADA.

His appointment as a staff of the organization was terminated for financially messing up the EDIF mango project among other underhand dealings.

This happened less than a year before he was handed over this GHc 2.7m (c27 billion) generously by the reckless SADA administration led by Gilbert Iddi for a butter nut squash project which is now on its knees, because a lot of the staff of the said Plus One Investment Limited have not been paid for about seven months now.

In fact scores of them are said to have become frustrated and left the company for good. This is less than sixteen months after this huge amount has been paid to Mr Dan Saaka Ahmed and his collaborators.

Mr Dan Saaka is said to have invested for himself a chunk of the amount in properties such as houses and cars in Accra and other parts of the Northern Region.

According to the audit report, Plus One Investment Limited should pay back the amount to SADA “together with interest at the current commercial bank lending rate.”

I have heard that some unscrupulous Ghanaians especially those from the northern extraction are blaming Mr Manasseh for what they consider as betraying the northern agenda by exposing northerners in the rots at both GYEEDA and SADA.

I am deeply worried by this position taken by some of our northern brothers who think they are genuine northerners than all of us.

If they care to know, Manasseh by his reports on SADA loves northerners and the North itself more than those wicked and greedy people who have stabbed the vulnerable and poverty-stricken people of the North in the back by robbing them of their needed resources to develop and possibly catch up with the Southern part of the country.

The likes of those mentioned above, including Mr Gilbert Iddi and Mr Dan Saaka Ahmed are the real haters of northerners and not the real patriotic son of the north like Manasseh Azure Awuni.

We are all northerners and we would like to assure them that we love and cherish what Manasseh Azure is doing for our compatriots and hometowns up north and should the need arises, we will mobilize against those unpatriotic so-called elites from the North who have devastated the coffers of SADA and destroyed this noble institution that is meant to rescue our people from the pangs of poverty, deprivation and underdevelopment.

I want to appeal to Manasseh to continue to focus on national issues especially the issues of the poor and the vulnerable as he is doing and should not relent because those people against what he is doing are in the minority among us northerners. In fact they are less than 1 per cent of northerners.

They are greedy and selfish people who are interested in bringing the clock of progress backward, and by Allah’s grace we shall not allow them to succeed.

Again, I have also heard some very small voices of discontent from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that Manasseh is a members or at least a sympathizer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Though I know they are a very small segment of the NDC support, that is even if they are genuine supporters; I would want to tell them that the biggest enemy of the NDC government and party is not Manasseh, but Mr Gilbert Iddi and his collaborators who have denied the people of the north the needed resources for development and thus gradually eroding the party’s popularity in one of its strongholds in the country.

And for those in the NPP who might be jubilating for what is happening to the NDC now in relation to SADA revelations, you should wait till Manasseh gets you on the wrong side of the law.

Am deeply convinced that in any social struggle between the poor and the elites on the issues of greed, corruption, sleaze and other exploitative tendencies, Manasseh would definitely be on the side of the poor, no matter which party is in power and whichever individuals or groups are involved, whether northerners or southerners.

I know Manasseh very well and I think he is a young man with a burning desire to do the right thing always without any regard to political or monetary influence.

So, as Ghanaians desirous of winning the fight against corruption and graft, we should all support him in the good work he is doing for the people of the North and the poor people of Ghana in general.

SHAKUR NURUDEEN MAHAMA

Nuru2014mahama@gmail.com

TAMALE