Dumsor back in full swing to torment us - Nana Konadu

After a few months of respite, the four-year erratic power supply situation, which led to some businesses folding up and downsizing, is back from its “leave” and in “full swing” to “torment” Ghanaians, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has said.

“When the lights were on and off (dumsor), a lot of businesses closed down: small, medium and large businesses closed down. Equipment in our homes were destroyed, people’s fridges, their freezers, their cookers, our electric irons, the simple things that we use including the expensive things like our computers, our phones, things were breaking down and there’s nobody, who is going to replace them for us even if dumsor had been ended.

“But as we can see, dumsor is back with us again. In fact, electricity tariffs were to be reduced on 1 July, but what do we see? Rather, dumsor is back in full swing, from leave, an extended leave maybe, to come and oppress us again as a nation,” Mrs Rawlings said in her latest video on social media.

Ghana has been experiencing power outages lately following the destruction of oil pipelines in Nigeria, according to President John Mahama. The situation in Abuja has prevented that country from supply of crude to Accra to power its thermal plants.

According to Mrs Rawlings, who is the flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the situation, once again, is posing a threat to businesses as it did during the four-year crisis before the brief lull.

“Commercial entities are closing down because of dumsor, people are being thrown out of jobs and I’ll say it again: it is increasing the unemployment situation, so, our young people who are coming from the universities or those who have been out of the universities for the past three, four years, where are they supposed to find jobs if the ones who are already in jobs are being thrown out? It looks like there is no solution.

We want a solution to this problem. And instead of a solution, all we have are excuses and excuses,” she stated.

Mrs Rawlings has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to unite against the Mahama administration, since the electricity situation, in her view, is not being tackled properly. “One very important thing is that no commercial entity can survive where there is no electricity.

Electricity is our lifeline, electricity is everything and, in fact, as a nation, we cannot compete in the 21st century without energy, without electricity. So what are we going to do about it? We must come together and fight this entity, this entity that is making it impossible for us to survive as a nation.

It can be done, so, what are we waiting for? Speak out and let’s get things done and done properly to change this country for the better.”