Stop The Turf War Now

There are elements in our society who want to do everything to create a semblance of an ungovernable state in our distinct polity in the West African sub-region.

This group of people has nothing good to offer the people and yet everyday they are on scandal mongering in a useless bid to paint the government and its appointees as heartless, who do not care about the citizens. They have increased the tempo of their ugly noises just to gain attention from the electorate, although so far, they have not offered any concrete alternatives.

In the year of election like the situation now, some appointees of government form alliances with the opposition parties to sabotage its policies and programmes. While the people struggle every day to eke a living, these institutions take delight in fighting turf wars.

A classical case in point is the “war” between the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and now the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the ECG. These turf wars just leave the ordinary person worse off and confused about the heartless attitudes of some duty bearers.

The question is, how would these turf wars help to keep the power on for ordinary people who want to work to get the enabling environment to make a living? All that the people of Ghana care about now is steady power devoid of the dumsor of the John Mahama era.

We want to make it clear today that whether the NDC and its leaders decide to play politics with the challenges of the power sector and thereby equalise their abysmal record of 2012 to 2016 does not matter very much to the ordinary Ghanaian. What they want is the ability of the government and its institutions to give us reliable and cost effective power.

Ghanaians detest dumsor and that was why in 2016, John Mahama suffered the heaviest defeat in the history of the country. They said to John Mahama in 2016 with their “Kokromoti Power” to get off their back with his incompetence, for a better pair of hands to take charge of the governance of the state.

Those who believe in the truth and are God-fearing know that the Nana Akufo-Addo government was working hard to change the fortunes of the country when COVID-19 struck and compounded by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Majority of Ghanaians are ready to traverse this difficult terrain with the government except the NDC and its supporters who are forcing the tag of failure on the NPP government for their personal gain.

The NDC and John Mahama have no magic wand to address the challenges of the country. The people must be wary of the character who is promising the people milk, sugar and honey on some campaign platforms and in others asking the people to allow him a period for honeymoon.

Is John Mahama for real or just exemplifying his characteristics as a very inconsistent person? John Mahama’s tenure should not be the example by which the NPP wants to be judged. The people deserve better and Nana Akufo-Addo and his team must just deliver to the expectations of the people. The people are simply tired of the excuses for the current state of electricity generation in the country.

Back in the beginning of the second term of President Akufo-Addo, we were assured that dumsor has been buried forever and if we see traces of John Mahama’s incompetence, it is not dumsor but “dum sie sie”. Mr. President, what we are facing now has gone beyond “dum sie sie”. The buck stops on your desk at the Jubilee House and we expect you to act to keep the power on.

We recall the key character in 'Things Fall Apart,' Okonkwo, who did not want to be reminded of the failures of his father and stayed his distance from such shortcomings in order not to be mocked by his compatriots.

Mr. President, be scared of John Mahama’s Achilles heel which is five years of dumsor, and therefore like Okonkwo you must clear anybody who stands in your way to make dumsor history.

We urge you Mr. President to give the current managers of our power an ultimatum to fix the challenges or face dire consequences. If that is not done, many would think the government has something to hide and, thus, create the climate for the unnecessary turf war while the people endure the pain of blackouts.