Dumsor: Jinapor comments irritating – KITE boss

It is irritating to be hearing past officials of the John Mahama administration including former Deputy Minister of Power John Jinapor and Edward Bawa, former energy consultant to the Ministry of Power, blaming the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the power situation in the country, Ishmael Edjekumhene, Executive Director, Kumasi Institute of Technology & Environment (KITE-Ghana), has said.

According to him, the two and several other officials of the past government rejected solutions energy experts proposed toward solving the country’s energy crisis, later turning around to claim the ex-government had resolved the situation, which he felt was insincere.

Both Jinapor and Bawa have claimed that the NDC administration left a stable power sector to this government, therefore, ‘dumsor’ (intermittent power supply) should not be recurring.

Mr Jinapor on Tuesday, 28 February on the floor of parliament said the Mahama administration dealt with the energy situation in the country in a comprehensive and coherent manner and so there was no reason why the country should be having issues with energy.

He subsequently told journalists: “Under no circumstance should we be experiencing ‘dumsor’ given the positive strides and the resilient robust nature of the power sector we handed over to them. And, so, if dumsor is recurring under this administration, they should solve it and not blame the John Mahama administration. We dealt with it in a comprehensive and coherent manner. If we were to be in government by now, we wouldn’t be experiencing ‘dumsor’.

“Under the NDC administration, the FPSO went down for almost two months. At a point Ameri was not running, they were not producing gas at all but we sustained power. Around August 2016 thereabouts, FPSO went down again but we sustained the power and so if they want they should invite us to teach them how to deal with the power crisis and how to sustain it.”

Mr Bawa, for his part, commenting on a statement released by the Ministry of Energy on Tuesday, said: “It is good if the minister has said capacity is available, but there are some technical challenges. The technical challenge is as a result of lack of planning because the energy sector agencies should have spoken to each other and rescheduled their operations to ensure that the effects [of the planned maintenance] would have been minimised.”

But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday, 1 March, Mr Edjekumhene said: “I think the media should help us by refraining from speaking to officials of the erstwhile NDC administration on the energy situation because you can’t leave office and just after two months come and be blaming the new government for the recurrence of the problem. If they had fixed it we wouldn’t be experiencing the problem now. Sometimes it is irritating listening to officials of the past government speaking on the energy situation, you stayed in power for eight years and rubbished all the suggestions some of us made to end the ‘dumsor’. They could not solve the problem and so they should stop blaming the new government.

“This government has been in office for less than two months, the government hasn’t even brought its first budget and so where will he get the money to go and buy the crude. The past government had five years to end ‘dumsor’ but the problem was not solved.

“How can a Deputy Minister for Power who consistently told us that the problem had been solved whereas he knew it had not been resolved, and Mr Bawa, who rubbished all the suggestions experts made, will come out now and be talking this way. I will wish that I don’t comment on statements made by officials of the past government because some of their comments are irritating.

“I think we should all focus on ways the new government will solve the problem and if they all fail then we will criticise them.”