National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has lambasted the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, for his “provide your dumsor timetable” comment.
He says the comments were unfortunate and goes to confirm the disrespect on the part of the Minister to Ghanaians.
According to him, the Manhyia South lawmaker’s attempt to describe the current dumsor as better than the one in Mahama’s administration is a nonstarter as long as they all come with same consequences.
During the inauguration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) campaign team in the Ashanti Region, the Manhyia South lawmaker challenged those advocating for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to issue a load-shedding timetable to present their own proposed schedules.
He told critics to develop their own timetables for the erratic power supply otherwise referred to as dumsor, if they deemed it necessary. Dr. Opoku Prempeh questioned the rationale behind creating a timetable when the ECG has confirmed that no such plan is in place.
Speaking with Captain Smart on Onua TV’s Maakye Wednesday, March 27, 2024, Mr. Gyamfi said the Minister would have retracted his words and apologised if he had any respect for Ghanaians.
“It is unfortunate that a whole Minister could make such utterances. If you’re a leader, you’re a servant to the nation and your position is by virtue of the power given you by the people. We voted for the President before he appointed you. Your salary is paid from the taxes of Ghanaians. We knew you from opposition and in government so when you’re talking to Ghanaians, accord us some respect and honour because we pay you. We have given you a job and it is us you’re serving,” he averred.
“He did not speak well and if he had respect and honour for Ghanaians, he would have retracted those words,” he added.
Sammy Gyamfi explained that the ongoing power outage is affecting Ghanaian businesses just as the erratic supplies in previous administrations affected people, admitting that even though some lasted longer than others, that does not change the fundamental challenge it is causing.
“The ongoing dumsor is affecting everyone irrespective of the party you belong, be it NPP or NDC. So this is not the time that a leader of your sort should say your dumsor is better than someone else’s because all dumsor is dumsor.
“The dumsor we had in Kufuor’s time in 2007, 1984 after the drought, in 1999 under Rawlings and dumsor from 2012 to 2015 under Mahama and they are all the same. They all brought the same burden on the people. What you can say is that one lasted a longer period than the other but it doesn’t mean that the problem is a different problem and your own is better than some else’s,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, the Energy Ministry has defended the Minister’s statement indicating that he was only being factual to Ghanaians.
