John Dramani Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama has opened himself up for a renewed scrutiny over the infamous ‘akonfem’ saga, a controversial incident that appears to have come back to haunt him.
In a bizarre twist, Mr. Mahama, who is the 2024 flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has denied claims that guinea fowls under the erstwhile Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) flew to Burkina Faso, reigniting debate about the circumstances surrounding the ‘akonfem’ affair.
“No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso,” Mahama stated emphatically during a media engagement in Bolgatanga to wrap up his tour of the Upper East Region.
“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,” he asserted.
According to him, the assertions that the guinea fowls flew to Burkina Faso are baseless rumours carried by the media without the necessary checks to understand the project properly.
“Somebody came and asked the watchman, ‘where are the guinea fowls? And the watchman said, they go to Burkina Faso, they will 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,” he explained.
But despite the backlash, Mahama remains optimistic about the project’s potential. “I think it is a project we can look at again,” he said, while expressing interest in revisiting the infamous guinea fowls project.
Mr. Mahama revealed that the project had an elaborate plan to process and market guinea fowls across the country.
He explained that there was supposed to be a processing plant, where the mature guinea fowls would be bought from households, processed, and then transported to market centres in frozen trucks.
“Unfortunately, the project ran into issues. The media criticised it, and they came and said the guinea fowls had flown to Burkina Faso,” he intimated.
The ‘akonfem’ saga refers to a scandalous incident during Mahama’s presidency, where guinea fowls allegedly flew out of the country, sparking widespread outrage and ridicule.
Mahama’s denial has only fueled further speculation, with many Ghanaians taking to social media to express their skepticism.
By Ernest Kofi Adu