The 2024 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has refuted claims that guinea fowls under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) initiative flew to Burkina Faso during his presidency in 2014. 

These assertions made headlines in 2014, suggesting that guinea fowls from the SADA programme had migrated to the neighbouring country.

Addressing the media in Bolgatanga at the end of his tour of the Upper East Region on Wednesday, August 7, Mr Mahama denied the allegations, calling them baseless. 

He clarified that the project was misunderstood and misrepresented in the media.

Mr Mahama explained that the SADA initiative was not about rearing guinea fowls in a single enclosed area. Instead, it was an incubation process where day-old chicks were distributed to farmers for rearing. 

According to him, the approach was meant to integrate the birds into local farming practices rather than confining them to a specific location.

The former President blamed the media for not thoroughly investigating the project before publishing the sensational claims. 

He emphasised that the project had been misconstrued and that no guinea fowl had flown to Burkina Faso.

“No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso. Guinea fowls are not migratory birds and the project was not for you to come and see thousands of guinea fowls in one place. It was supposed to incubate the eggs and give the guinea fowls’ day-old chicks to farmers."

“And so somebody came and asked the watchman, ‘Where are the guinea fowls? And the watchman said, they go Burkina Faso, they go come back in the rainy season.’ The media went and published it. And after that, there are people who believe that there were some guinea fowls that flew to Burkina Faso so that project died. But I think it is a project we can look at again," he insisted.

The former president added that there was an elaborate plan to process the mature guinea fowls.

These processed birds were then to be transported to market centers across the country.

“There was supposed to be a processing plant so that the guinea fowls would be bought off the households and processed, and they would put them in frozen trucks to send them down to the south to the market. Unfortunately, the project ran into issues. The media criticised it, and they came and said the guinea fowls had flown to Burkina Faso," he added.