A Governance Expert, Professor Baffior Agyeman-Duah has told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to show leadership and call all the major players in the power sector, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRDCo), the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) and give them marching orders to solve the power crisis.
He says he will be very surprised if the president has not done that already.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Monday, April 22, Prof Ageyman Duag said “I will be surprised that the president has not called the leadership of the VRA, GRIDCo, ECG, and PURC, to sit them down to give them the marching order that he doesn’t like what they are doing.
“That is leadership, we need the president to be giving the marching orders. As I said, if he has done it privately I don’t know but based on the public pronouncements by these state agencies in charge of the energy sector, it seems like he hasn’t done that.”
Dumsor Politics and Election 2024: The government hasn’t been too active in seeking solutions to problems. – Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, Governance Expert#GhanaTonight pic.twitter.com/Ir6ie2Tx1Y
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) April 23, 2024
Professor Agyeman-Duah further criticized the government for the snail’s pace with which it is finding solutions to the power challenges.
He believes that given the rate at which the power outages occur, the government should have at least attached all seriousness to finding lasting solutions but that has not been the case.
He said “The government hasn’t been too active in seeking solutions to problems”
Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah further asked the state power distributor, the ECG to release a load-shedding timetable.
This, in his view, will help consumers of power to plan their lives properly.
“The wise thing to do is to issue a timetable,” Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, said.
Meanwhile, the Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has admitted that the power outages in parts of the country are frustrating.
However, he said, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the challenge.
Mr Ahiagbah attributed the situation to the maintenance work being carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
He assured that the work will soon be completed.
“The recent power outages have been understandably frustrating. However, there is an end in sight. The maintenance works are almost complete, and we can soon expect access to an uninterrupted power supply around the clock, as we have become accustomed to under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia Administration.”
Regarding the criticism the members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have made against the government over the outages, he said “The NDC is the last political organization to point fingers because Ghana has not forgotten the hurts of the ‘real dumsor,’ suffered under H.E. Mahama.