The people who wish the failure of the government have become obsessed with dumsor to the extent that some Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the Minority find it difficult to differentiate between routine power outages and the painful experiences during the John Mahama administration.
The recent power outages have been likened to a looming apocalypse unprecedented in the history of the country by these naysayers and their agents in the media, academia and civil society.
The NDC, its flagbearer, John Mahama and the supporters think the challenges signify the end of the world. These outages have not eclipsed the outstanding performance of the power companies to keep the power on since 2017, after five years of dumsor during the NDC administration.
It is said that for a perception to gain currency, the campaign must be sustained. That is what the NDC has succeeded in doing by making the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to believe that dumsor is here, and directed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to come out with a timetable even for isolated outages.
The consuming public had expected the PURC to be an independent arbiter in the fight between the government and the opposition NDC to determine the true state of affairs.
As things stand now, it appears the PURC is just fuelling the politics of dumsor instead of stating the true state of power generation and distribution in the country. This evidence is not difficult to get from industry players.
The opposition NDC has always argued that the power challenges have occurred because the government cannot buy fuel and gas to run the plants. The government and utility providers think otherwise.
We recall that in the heat of dumsor between 2012 and 2016, the NDC had blamed dumsor on technical issues and not lack of money to fuel the plants while the NPP, then in opposition, said there was no money to buy fuel and gas.
Now that the table has turned and the NPP is in power, John Mahama and his NDC think it is payback time to force dumsor on the people. That way the NDC can have an opportunity to compare records and tell Ghanaians that when it comes to dumsor, “yen nyina ara abu pɛpɛpɛ.”
However, the PURC can give the verdict if it has not also become politically tainted as other institutions that must make independent assessment of the situation.
The ECG, in its statement on the power challenges, gave the timeline by which the intermittent blackouts would end. We ask the PURC why it is in a hurry to give a directive which would be difficult to comply with. We acknowledge the mandate of the PURC to protect the interest of consumers and utility service providers, which means the commission would not allow each party to suffer.
For this reason, the PURC is within its mandate to direct the ECG to give effective, efficient and value for money services to the public. However, we think in the instance case of “load management timetable corresponding with the timelines and duration for each transformer injection,” the PURC has put the cart before the horse.
Is the PURC, as the regulator aware of the explanation given by the ECG that it is unable to determine the load until peak periods, because it is unable to determine the consumption levels ahead of peak periods to warrant timetables?
We urge the PURC to further engage the players in the industry to avoid a situation where it would be regarded as a toothless bulldog that can bark but cannot bite.
The NDC’s loud scream of dumsor is much ado about nothing. While we detest the attitude of those forcing dumsor on us, it is equally nauseating for some ECG staff to team up with nation wreckers to engage in illegal connections throughout the length and breadth of the country.
All Ghanaians too must stop the attitude where “we think when the government owns, nobody owns so nobody cares”. We must all act as vigilantes to protect ECG installations to ensure that we have power for our comfort at home as well as to power our income generating businesses of “dumsor is back.”