Sammy Gyamfi, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s communications officer, has voiced his extreme displeasure of the Akufo-Addo administration’s handling of the recent “dumsor” power shortages.
Businesses have expressed their concerns and are calling for a resolution as a result of the phenomena, which has been seriously disrupting operations. The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) insists that there is now no need for a load-shedding program in spite of these disruptions.
But in line with the NDC’s requests, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has ordered ECG to submit a load management schedule by April 2.
The ‘take or pay’ agreements of Mahama’s administration, which it considers unnecessary, are the reason given by the government for the problem.
Sammy Gyamfi accused the government of abdicating its duty to address the power crisis in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face, drawing a comparison between this and the Mahama administration’s handling of a comparable circumstance.
He emphasized Mahama’s resolve to solving the issue, emphasizing that it did not turn to justifications but rather took firm action to resolve the matter, ending its term in office with a markedly increased capacity for power generation.
“We take responsibility for problems, and we fix those problems. We build this nation, that is what the records show. If you look at where our generational capacity ought to have been in 2012, we were there as a country and that was a collective failure we are all sharing. Even though this problem was an inherited problem, we didn’t go about making flimsy excuses.
“He [Mahama] took full responsibility and promised to fix it. And by the time he was leaving office, he had fixed the problem. Nana Akufo-Addo’s two Nation Address in 2016, stated categorically that President Mahama had fixed ‘dumsor’ but deserved no credit for fixing ‘dumsor’ because he created it and fixed it at a greater cost.”
Gyamie emphasized the strategic measures implemented by the Mahama government, including the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) and the establishment of emergency power plants, which together increased the sector’s capacity for producing electricity and solved its financial difficulties.
He bemoaned the present government’s return to “dumsor.”
“Alhaji Bawumia [Dr] in March 2016 in an interview admitted Mahama had ended ‘dumsor’. In 2016, the loads-hedding timetable had come to an end. Mahama didn’t just conjure the solution. No, he put in place transformational, comprehensive measures in place by bringing in emergency power plants, KARPOWER, AMERI etc, such that by the time he was leaving power, generational capacity was almost 5,000 megawatts.
“He dealt with the legacy of debt, which was crippling the power sector by introducing ESLA, so he dealt with the problem comprehensively and took us out. Sadly today, the nation wreckers have come and taken us back to ‘dumsor”.
