John Dramani Mahama
There has been an unending debate about which administration fixed the power challenges experienced under former president John Dramani Mahama. President Akufo-Addo and his government have constantly claimed credit for solving the dumsor menace before the recent dumsor. On the other hand, former President Mahama has fervently challenged this and urged the current president to desist from telling lies.
Dr. Kwame Ampofo, the former chairman of the Energy Commission, has done a
great article on this subject; however, the NDC and NPP protagonists have
consistently claimed credit for fixing dumsor; this is in addition to the recent
dumsor has necessitated writing this article to establish whether John
Mahama or Akufo-Addo fixed dumsor.
Background:
Major power crises have confronted every government under this fourth republic.
Between 1998 and 2000, there were power crises under the late former president
Jerry John Rawlings; it also happened under former president John Agyekum
Kufour between 2006 and 2007. Then 2011–2012 under the late former president
John Evans Atta Mills. Former president John Dramani Mahama was also
confronted with the same problem between 2013 and 2015. The latter is the
most prolonged and intense of all.
The reoccurrences of the energy crises were attributed to poor rainfall, which
had kept the water level in Volta Lake very low, to the extent that the
power output from the Hydropower stations had been correspondingly critically low. The problem was compounded by the lack of adequate generating capacity from thermal plants, borne out of technical challenges.
Moreover, there were financial and contractual challenges in the purchase of
natural gas from Nigeria to power the thermal plants. All these factors piled up
while the demand for power increased across the country due to population growth. The energy demand in this country was estimated to be 10% annually.
requiring an annual addition of 200MW. By 2003, we were in a capacity deficit of
900MW and approximately 1800MW by 2013.
Prior to the 2013 energy crisis, there was a total installed capacity of
2296 MW, consisting of 1180 MW of hydropower and 1116 MW of thermal generation capacity. Since there was a loss of 800 MW of capacity, the remaining 1500 MW was insufficient to meet the demand of about 1800 MW. This implies that the capacity demanded in the system outweighs the capacity supplied by approximately 300 MW.
Clearly, there was a bubbling crisis waiting to explode, and it exploded in
2013, because, by 2013, there was a generational problem with the energy
system, which had accumulated for decades. It had nothing to do with
incompetence or financial mismanagement, but lack of foresight by all
previous regimes.
Former president Mahama had two options: either to work and eliminate the
deficit between supply and demand, thereby managing the problem to bounce
back in the future, or work to address the root causes of the problem.
Interventions:
Former president Mahama decided that it was time to end the recurrence of
the energy crises and chose the latter, boldly declaring, "I, John Dramani
Mahama, I will fix the energy challenge, and not just manage it”. He opted for the more holistic but tedious and lengthy route of addressing the challenge. This approach was aimed at the total elimination of the energy crisis, so he took the bull by the horns. This was a very bold decision with political consequences, yet he chose this path in the interest of the country.
Empirical Initiatives:
H.E. John Mahama initiated the procurement of emergency power plants, i.e.,.
the Karpowership 450 MW and the Ameri plant 250 MW on a build-operate-and-take (BOT) agreement, and it eventually became the property of Ghana in 2021. Former president Mahama also initiated and completed the construction of the Natural Gas Processing Plant (Ghana Gas Company) at Atuabo, which has a capacity to handle over 300 MW of gas. As a result, Ghana is processing enough gas to produce about 900 MW of electricity, and the majority of the LPG is consumed in this country.
The former president also constructed BXC’s of a 20 MW solar plant close to
Winneba. It was the biggest of its kind in West Africa. There was also the
construction of more thermal plants for medium-term solutions between 2016 and
2021; these include the AKSA (370 MW), Amandi (190 MW), and Early Power (190 MW).
The Kpone thermal plant was also constructed to give 220 MW; this was
initiated by former president Kufour and completed by former president John
Mahama.
Verdict:
The documented evidence indicates that former president Mahama added
more than 1260MW of new generating capacity to the national stock of power
to end dumsor before leaving power.
At the end of December 2015, the persistent energy crisis was solved by H.E.
John Mahama. The current dumsor under President Akufo-Addo is a result of financial mismanagement because there is no problem with generation capacity.
The question about who fixed dumsor was put to rest by the then-running
mate of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, when he said in March 2016 that,
John Mahama deserves no credit for fixing dumsor because he created it in the
first place.
