President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been charged to put a stop to the ongoing rancour between the players in the energy sector to keep Ghana switched on.
Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana has advised that, for the President to leave a legacy after his tenure, one thing he should not be remembered for is plunging the nation back into intermittent power outages which is known locally as ‘dumsor‘.
Prof. Gyampo has observed that the players in the sector, including its regulator, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), are fighting amongst themselves, the reason they cannot put their heads together to bring a finality to the ongoing dumsor.
“All the players, PURC included, they are talking at each other, instead of working together to keep Ghana switched on. And when two elephants fight, in this case, when all the elephants within this area are fighting, it is we the ordinary Ghanaians that will suffer,” he noted.
“And Mr. President, the buck stops with you. You must intervene to ensure that this rancor, acrimony, tension, backbiting and turf wars that are being waged amongst those who are expected to gather to take Ghana switched on, end,” Prof. Gyampo added Saturday, April 06, 2024 on TV3’s KeyPoints.
He explained that so far as the President has made it part of his achievements for keeping Ghana switched on throughout his tenure, it befalls on him to ensure the ongoing crisis is resolved.
“Because you are on record to have said you’ve kept Ghana switched on. But the reality is such that we are not experiencing regular supply of power and it is worrying. Mr. President, I’m calling on you, the buck stops with you. You should be interested in the kind of legacy you leave. You’ve seen it all so tomorrow when you’re not there, it should not happen that you left the scene with dumsor,” he stated.
Ghana has faced dumsor for some months now with many calling for a load-shedding timetable in order to help them plan their lives. But when Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh was asked about a load-shedding schedule, he angrily told those calling for it to provide some themselves.
Akufo-Addo orders cessation of electricity export to curtail ‘dumsor’ – Atta Akyea discloses
Meanwhile, the Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament has directed the ECG to produce a timetable for Ghanaians to be able to plan their daily activities.
Samuel Atta Akyea, Chairman of the Energy Committee of Parliament, highlighted the need for transparency and better planning, stating that the committee will monitor the implementation of the timetable closely.
“The conversations we’ve had so far are very good, some of the technical challenges relating to fuel and the rest of it may be tackled. If there’s under generation, which there’s an admission there’s one, we should do everything in our power to make sure that we generate enough power.
“I think the Committee was very strong on the matter that if there are power outages, those who are enjoying should know when it’ll be available, and then they plan their lives around the timetable they’ll furnish them.
“They are going to do it and we’ll do everything in our power to monitor them,” Mr. Atta Akyea indicated.
