It is now obvious that the three-year-old power crisis that has bedeviled Ghana will not end in 2015 despite several promises by the John Dramani Mahama- led government.
In fact, this is a far cry from President Mahama’s 31st December, 2014 watch night prophecy to ensure that 2015 became the last year of darkness in Ghana, and the subsequent promise by his Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, to end the power crisis which has had serious repercussions on the economy.
It is therefore not a surprise that three years into his term, President Dramani Mahama has now opened up his administration to public scrutiny.
Starting from yesterday President Dramani Mahama met a cross-section of Ghanaians to brief them on progress made so far on the execution of his mandate.
According to a statement issued by the Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, the event was to deepen transparency and accountability in governance as reflected in the fourth pillar of the 2012 NDC’s manifesto.
However, some critics of government yesterday told Today in an interview that the government’s public open interaction was dead on arrival having wasted all these years.
For instance, they recounted how the Volta River Authority, the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in 2014 intensified a power rationing programme which was already in place.
The effects of that measure, Today observed, started to hit hard at industries and other businesses, particularly in the private sector, forcing some to start to lay off whiles others folded up.
And with the condition refusing to die off by the close of 2014, President Dramani Mahama pledged to fix ‘dumsor,’ a new Akan lexicon, meaning ‘on and off’ in reference to the incessant power cuts.
It would be recalled that President Dramani Mahama whiles at the Perez Chapel in Accra on the 31st night last year where he joined thousands of congregants to bid farewell to 2014 said the new year “will be one in which darkness would be banished from our land, and put an end to ‘dumsor’ forever, I knew that would be an interesting prophetic pronouncement.”
The president also used the occasion to call on Ghanaians to be optimistic and eschew sluggishness at work.
Mr. Dramani Mahama said he would be guided by his call to serve and create a prosperous nation for the present and future generations.
The president had early on in his New Year’s message to the nation, described 2014 as a year that witnessed several challenges, but which was surmounted with a lot of courage.
He asked Ghanaians to be hopeful because 2015 would be a good one.
Earlier, the Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, upon his appointment promised to solve the energy crisis.
Consequently, President Dramani Mahama in his State of Nation Address at the 3rd session of the Sixth Parliament of the 4th Republic on Thursday, February 26, 2015 said: “I would hold the Minister to his publicly stated commitment to resolve the electricity supply deficit by the end of this year.”
In that same address the president said he did not intend to manage the situation (power crisis) as had been done in the past.
However, he said he intended to fix it. “I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge,” he told Parliament.
With 2016 on the horizon, it is clear the president’s prophecy will not be fulfilled at least not in 2015.
However, in recent times both the president and the power minister have shifted from giving definitive dates for the end to dumsor, though the president still maintains that he “will fix this power situation.”
Whiles on his recent tour to in the Eastern region on October 17, Mr. Dramani Mahama said his power minister would announce the end of dumsor soon.
He reiterated his position that he would fix the energy crisis by finding a lasting solution.
“I am hopeful that the minister of power will announce the end of dumsor,” President Dramani Mahama told a gathering at the Koforidua Jackson Park.
His comments were in the wake of the power minister’s outbursts on radio during which he (the minister) directed a journalists to ask President Dramani Mahama about the date that the power crisis would end.
During his ‘Changing Lives Tour’ in the Eastern region, President Dramani Mahama said he was not going to blame any government nor individual for the energy crisis but would take full responsibility, and pointed out that given the measures taken by his administration, the power crisis would end soon.
Though the government was counting on a number of ongoing projects to solve the power crisis, our investigations showed that that would not bring an end to dumsor as Ghanaians are made to believe.
These mainly involve power purchase agreements the government entered into with several Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and plants that VRA is currently working on.
According to the president, starting from this year and over the next 5 years, they plan to inject 3,665 MW of power into the power transmission grid.
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