There is light at the end of the tunnel in so far as finding solutions to the power challenges is concerned.
Like the economy, about which the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said we have turned the corner, the Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh would not be far from right to say same about his “dum sie sie” that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) prayed was the return to dumsor.
In the history of the Fourth Republic, the NDC has tried without success to compare its records to that of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). That is the reason why we have asked the NPP not to look at the records of the NDC in the governance of the country, especially in resolving our power challenges.
The NDC cannot be the standard by which we can judge the country’s post independence development process. The governing NPP should never look at the way the NDC handled our power crisis from 2012 to 2017, always making a case for excuses.
The leader of the NDC, John Mahama, never lost the opportunity to tell Ghanaians, rather annoyingly why he could not fix the power challenges. How on earth can a Head of State blame the increasing charging of mobile phones and the use of television sets for dumsor?
At that time Ghanaians should have read in between the lines that those excuses being made by John Mahama were the admission of his incapabilities to fix dumsor. Having failed for over four years to fix dumsor, the man, who was then called “Mr. Dumsor” has the nerves to criticise the ruling NPP for the return of the power challenges. It is, however, within his rights to join the conversations surrounding the power challenges.
We all dread dumsor because over four years of dumsor brought businesses on their knees and caused pain to families throughout the country. Listen to John Mahama’s assessment of the present power challenges, although he failed miserably to resolve the challenges during his reign despite persistent assurances to fix dumsor.
Ever since the NDC exited power, its members have always prayed for the return of dumsor because they are convinced dumsor caused their defeat in the 2016 elections. And the same fate awaits the NPP if the power challenges metamorphose into dumsor. The NDC criticised the prudent move by the NPP government to relocate the Ameri Power Plant to Kumasi under a new name, Kumasi Thermal Power Plant.
The government must be focused on the goal of giving Ghanaians stable and regular power, and all appointees of government must be charged never to drop the ball.
Instead of building alliances with critical institutions of state at this time, some appointees are “scoring own goals” to derail the historic agenda of ‘breaking the eight’ with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Mr. President, such characters have no place in your government if the trust and confidence you reposed in them have made them haughty and disrespectful.
Governance is about the people and as such our duty bearers must respect the people. They are the servants of the people and must not Lord it over them. Sadly, Simon Osei Mensah has become notorious for taking the people who gave the NPP power for granted. He is the same person who refused to give audience to caterers in the Ashanti Region because they had breached protocol.
He must know that the person who appointed him would not show such disdain and disrespect to the people. Simon Osei Mensah should put up with our values that frown on his superiority complex so that he can accept to serve the ordinary people in humility. Otherwise, he should be fired for a more people friendly person as the representative of the President in the Ashanti Region.
We urge him to use the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, otherwise known as King Solomon, on the Golden Stool to smoke the peace pipe with the workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Let the present corps of leaders learn never to repeat the arrogance of John Mahama in dealing with dumsor captured in media headlines such as ” Blame dumsor on Almighty God, not on NDC administration”, ” Increasing mobile phones and television sets usage cause of dumsor”, and “Ghanaians will have to pay more for power, if they want sustainable electricity”. We have no regrets for saying that former President Mahama is a consistently inconsistent person.