Prof. Ransford Gyampo has asked President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo not to plunge the nation back into ‘dumsor‘, –erratic power outages –before leaving office.
For touting himself as keeping the country switched on for the past seven years, Prof. Gyampo says the President should ensure that the ongoing power crisis is resolved, so that he hands over to a new President without dumsor just as he inherited.
Speaking on the intermittent power outages on the KeyPoints Saturday, April 08, 2024, the University of Ghana Professor said it was the President’s responsibility to resolve the ongoing rancour between the energy sector players to resolve the problem.
According to him, the dumsor has been persistent because the sector players who are supposed to find a solution to it are fighting each other, which he says is prolonging the crisis.
“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.”
“So if the stakeholders who are supposed to work together to keep Ghana switched on are at each other’s throat and firing missiles across and being ballistic at each other, the buck stops with you. You must intervene to ensure that they work to get Ghana switched on as it used to be at the time that power was handed over to you,” he charged.
“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,” Prof. Gyampo added.
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Meanwhile, Parliament’s Select Committee on Mines and Energy has issued a directive to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish a timetable for the ongoing load-shedding.
The Committee says the timetable will help citizens to plan their lives amidst the ongoing power crisis.
The directive comes months after intensified intermittent power outages, prompting calls for a timetable to help people plan their activities.
When Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, was questioned about the calls for a load-shedding schedule, he angrily told Ghanaians calling for a timetable to provide some for themselves.
But the Mines and Energy Committee, after the ECG admitted at a stakeholders meeting Sunday, April 07, 2024, that it is facing challenges due to the power distribution, has intervened in the matter, demanding the Company to provide a timetable for load management.
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.
