Leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed sadness over the management of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) under President John Dramani Mahama, given the president's roots of Bole Bamboi in the Northern Region.

According to him, the idea was heavily derided by the president in 2008 when it was mooted in NPP’s manifesto as the Northern Rural Growth Programme.

“I think what is the biggest tragedy about the whole SADA development is that it is under the leadership of a man in the north that the SADA has become such a tragic development,” he said on Accra-based Starr FM on Wednesday, April 15.

“That really hurts.”

The operations of SADA have been heavily criticized as breeding corruption.

That forced the president to constitute a new board for the Authority last year. Mrs. Angelina Mornah Domakyaareh, a former Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), chairs the board.

A new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Charles Akelyira Abugre was also appointed.

Nana Addo recounted how the idea to help the people in the Savannah region was initially mocked by the likes of President Mahama.

“When I first mooted the idea, the president said at the time that the ideas are a pie in the sky and they had better spent [funds] doing this and that and mocked it.”

But Nana Addo said as has become characteristic of the president, he turned round to implement it.

“I have this satisfaction that every time [President Mahama] mocks an idea of mine, later he turns round to embrace it.

“We were told that this free senior high school was a pie-in-the-sky idea. Today, it is a big thing that he is also [doing],” Nana Addo said, stressing that the NPP will continue with it if voted for in 2016.

“It is an important policy for the country.”