A leaked report which says an average of 85% of Savanna Accelerated Development Agency-sponsored trees planted within the Northern Savannah Zone of Ghana survived is provoking a storm of mixed reactions on social media.<\/p>\n
Public reactions \u2013 via social media \u2013 to the findings by the University for Development Studies, Tamale, show sharp divisions in public opinion, after citifmonline.com<\/strong><\/em> published details of the document.<\/p>\n \u201cThe average percentage survival of all the planted species in the SADA plantations were very high (85%) with the highest (88%) recorded in the Eastern Zone and the least (76%) in the Southern Zone,\u201d says the \u201cdraft final report\u201d. It was authored by the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale.<\/p>\n According to the December 2013 report, Prof. S.K.Oppong led the four-member-team of experts which evaluated the SADA tree-planting project. The report names the other members of the team as W.J. Asante, Mr. D.Tom-Dery, and Mr. B.N. Baatuuwie.<\/p>\n But, coming at a time SADA is facing severe public anger after new revelations that the Authority\u2019s multi-million-cedi tree-planting project may not have been value for money, some critics have been quick to dismiss the report as \u201ca major cover up\u201d.<\/p>\n Writing on Facebook, Joel Ekow Amoah, described the report as \u201cuseless\u201d shortly after citifmonline.com published details of the leaked document in an article titled; \u201cUDS Report: 85 percent of SADA trees survived\u201d. \u201cYou people think Ghanaians are fools,\u201d Amoah added, apparently directing his anger at the UDS, authors of the evaluation report.<\/p>\n Another post by Victor Asante described the UDS report as \u201cfarcical\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems only Government can see the survival of the trees,\u201d says another post by Kweku Dompreh. \u201cWhere is the current image and they should tell us their location… Such lies and thievery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A different comment by Obidombie Kwaku Agyemang-Badu Tikesie, describes the report as \u201clies\u201d and goes on to compare the document to a \u201c419\u201d scam.<\/p>\n \u201cThe error term in this so called research is high based on what I have seen,\u201d claims Paa Kwesi in a post on Citi FM\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cUDS should not be manipulated by politicians,\u201d the post adds.<\/p>\n But, SADA supporters on Facebook have been defending the report as academic evidence that news reports accusing the Authority of misuse of public funds may not have been credible.<\/p>\n Sisu Mandeeya Abukari posted the following comments on Citi FM\u2019s Facebook page: \u201cSo we jump to conclusion and start insulting SADA officials just when some lazy guy goes out there and do some lazy job\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn that case there isn\u2019t any cause for alarm\u2026 [SADA] needs to be congratulated rather than insulted,\u201d a post by another social media addict, Ronald Yeboah Fineboy, argues.<\/p>\n Tetteh Quaye Humphrey, another social media enthusiast, wrote: \u201cEven if the programme was failing as a national project, should we just open our loud mouth and talk anyhow without providing any useful view [as to] how it is being managed? So who is telling the lie; the university or the journalists? Who has more credibility?\u201d<\/p>\n Commenting on the story, Stanley Nana Kojo Awuku called the findings by UDS \u201cgood news\u201d in a post via Facebook.<\/p>\n Like the crisis-ridden Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), SADA\u2019s investments have been fraught with a string of financial scandals.<\/p>\n The Authority\u2019s Guinea Fowl Project is thought to have been one of the worse hit, forcing President John Mahama to abrogate SADA\u2019s contract with Asongtaba Cottage Limited, mangers of the multi-million-cedi project.<\/p>\n In an official statement issued in January, 2014, President Mahama directed the Board of SADA to act in consultation with the Attorney-General in terminating the contracts.<\/p>\n According to the statement, the Presidential order \u201cfollows the submission of a report by the Minister responsible for Development Authorities, Dr. Ahmed Mustapha, regarding two SADA projects\u201d.<\/p>\n Signed by Presidential Spokesperson, Ben Dotsei Malor, the January 31, 2014 statement requested the \u201cSADA Board to hold consultations with the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Local Government to work out a strategy for the proper implementation of the afforestation and tree growing project, on a decentralized basis.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Richard Dela Sky\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A leaked report which says an average of 85% of Savanna Accelerated Development Agency-sponsored trees planted within the Northern Savannah Zone of Ghana survived is provoking a storm of mixed reactions on social media. Public reactions \u2013 via social media \u2013 to the findings by the University for Development Studies, Tamale, show sharp divisions in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,17],"class_list":["post-15464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-wassa-akropong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}