More Energy Crisis? Ministers Must Go

The Minister for Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, and his Deputies, Dr. Kwabena Donkor and Mr. Emmanuel Armah Buah, have demonstrated sheer incompetence in tackling the energy crisis of the nation, therefore, they ought to back-out to avoid further escalations. For nine months in office, Dr Oteng-Adjei and his lieutenants have appeared clueless as to how to deal with the problems at the sector. At best, they would hold press conferences, lamenting about the challenges confronting them and ask Ghanaians to bear with them. Now, in their tenth month, they are still bombarding the populace with some spurious grief of pangs that the previous administration had bequeathed them a messy situation at the sector, hence the delay in dealing with the crisis head-on. The most despicable thing they are fond of is that the Minister would call for press conference only when there is a problem either in the fuel, gas or electricity sector. Why? The deputy Minister, Dr. Donkor, who thought he had the cunning mind to submerge any possible revolt against their ineptitudes anytime the crisis popped up, would hurriedly invite the media and say nothing but lamentations. What is more repugnant is the fact that Dr. Oteng-Adjei and his men have woefully failed to tell Ghanaians the indebtedness of the Oil marketing Companies (OMCs) to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which is causing instability in the oil sector and throwing businesses into state of fear in the country. What one needs to note is that no serious business minded investor would be delighted to be in the midst of frequent long queues at fuel stations in the country. Intriguingly, they claim they would not engage in blame game, hence they prefer to keep the information indicting to people who have committed crimes in the oil sector to their chests. Yet, as soon as there is a problem, they would panickly accuse the officials of the former government of mismanaging the sector and describe some fuel dealers as nation�s wreckers. How long shall they play with the destiny of the people? For example, on Monday, September 28, 2009, Dr. Donkor held a reactionary press conference and told the nation how the indebtedness of TOR is adversely affecting their performance. This, he did, only when another fuel shortage had hit the entire country, mostly in the north; where some unscrupulous dealers sold a gallon of kerosene for 15 Ghana cedis. This was one of the statements from Dr. Donkor, �It takes government a lot of constraint go give out information we have on the energy sector. For example, a single individual signed a contract worth 35 million dollars on a single day using two different companies from the Ministry of Energy and Rural Electrification - and we happen to know that person. So it has been a risky situation we face. There is so much information we could have released but apart from temporary political gain, it will not be in the strategic national interest, therefore, we prefer to hold things and until we get out of the wounds, we cannot make all such information available.� As a matter of principle and love of dear nation, Oteng-Adjei, Donkor and Buah are committing economic crime and the earlier they stepped down, the better for mother Ghana.