Solutions to the energy sector challenge in the country remain elusive to the incumbent government.
Wandering minds sometimes ask whether those at the helm won’t consult their predecessors about the secret behind their successful management of the sector.
In the heat of the last campaign season, President John Mahama reportedly claimed he had addressed the energy problem before exiting office, claim which was expectedly disputed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Those who saw dumsor as synonymous with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime appears to be having the last laugh.
The NPP too, just like the NDC, teased them when during a relatively less power outage during a routine maintenance period they demanded for a dumsor timetable. Dumsor, as Ghanaians have labeled the now persistent power outage in the country, appears to be beyond solution.
John Jinapor, the Energy Minister, has visibly lost the confidence he exuded when his party was in opposition and he had to speak about the energy sector.
The passion with which he did so and the quantum of queries he laid at the threshold of the ruling NPP at the time presented him as a person with alternatives to managing the country’s energy sector, not so, time has proven.
He is unable to keep the lights on and the Minority in Parliament have told him to cease the lamentation and keep the lights on. Today, while he is in charge of the sector, he is showing signs of helplessness, his occasional bogeyman approach when communicating with Ghanaians incurring for himself ridicules, especially on social media.
When he was in opposition, he was vociferous when he queried then President Akufo-Addo for lamenting about the country’s challenges, especially in the energy sector.
Leaders, he said, should address problems and stop lamenting as then President Akufo-Addo did.
Today, the Energy Minister has become a repository of lamentations. From the country’s oil for the thermal plants only able to last for five days to another for 2.6 days, dangling fear and panic have become his preference, a local bogeyman of sorts.
If that is a preferred way of ensuring that the Finance Ministry releases funds for the sector, then we salute him for his ingenuity.
Be it as it may, we do not think that this would interest potential investors to the country who cannot count on the efficiency of the energy sector.
With such erratic supply of energy, the so-called 24-hour economy mantra would remain a slogan for the campaign trail.
We have not as a people spared such critical sectors as energy, the destructive politicisation now a feature of almost everything in this country. This is why we are enduring the biting trend of dumsor.
The template used by the previous government in maneuvering through the maze of multiple purchasing agreements signed with suppliers is there for replication.
There is something about the previous government which kept the lights on. This is lacking today.
