ECG Strike! Customers Stranded

Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) customers who visited the various offices of the company in Kumasi and other parts of the country in the last three days suffered the ordeal of waiting for three hours each day before they were attended to.

This is because the aggrieved ECG staff were busily protesting against government's decision to privatize the company, a move which employees of the power company fear might have dire consequences for power users and the country in general.

Wearing red arm bands and chanting war songs, the staff ignored the depressed customers for three hours.

Bismarck Adomah, Chairman of the Ashanti Regional Branch of the Senior Staff Union (SSU) of the company, addressing the media, slammed government over its decision to privatize the ECG for the next 25 years, warning that the dangerous move could worsen the plight of Ghanaians.

He noted that the foreign private investor would frequently repatriate money from Ghana to his country and strongly warned that such a move would lead to the further weakening of the Ghana currency, with its attendant effects on the people.

The privatization of ECG, he reiterated, would lead to frequent increases in electricity tariff, adding that the people would struggle to pay.

Poor rural dwellers might not be able to pay the huge bills so they might be cut from the power grid totally by the private power supplier.

Mr. Adomah stated that currently several hospitals, government agencies and universities in the country owe the ECG huge amounts of money, indicating that ironically government is ready to address all the challenges facing ECG before the private investor starts business.

He urged the government to stop interfering in the work of the ECG, stressing that the company could perform far better than the said private investor if it (ECG) was given a free hand to operate.

According to Mr. Adomah, the problem with power in the country is not about distribution but generation, and so the ECG should not be made a sacrificial lamp by the government.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi