Elections have consequences – Napo’s rant during 2015 dumsor demo pops up

Amidst the ongoing power crisis and his position against the release of a load-shedding schedule by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), a video of energy minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh in 2015 when his party was in opposition, has gone viral on social media.

The video shows Opoku Prempeh’s participation in the famous #dumsormuststop protest at the height of the 2015 power crisis.

Speaking to the media during the protest, while bemoaning the situation and casting his blame on then President John Dramani Mahama, Dr. Opoku Prempeh insisted that the situation was the consequence of the electoral decision made by Ghanaians who voted the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into power in 2012.

“The demonstration is to demonstrate to John Mahama and Ghanaians that what is going on is bad. If you are feeling the heat like Ghanaians are feeling the heat, if you are buying electricity and they are having it for free, if you are spending 60% of your salary on electricity bills then you will understand what I am saying.

“I am suffering, John Mahama is not suffering. You don’t expect the members as a collective to speak on your behalf when you decided to give the Majority to such a bad government, NDC. Ghanaians should understand that their thumb matters; your thumb matters. When you go and vote you have to know that there are consequences ahead of you for the next four years. The thumb that Ghanaians gave to John Mahama has shown that they should never, never again should people trust John Mahama,” he stated.

The video from 2015 which has now gone viral on social media is being shared along with that of a recent interview by the minister in which he suggested that those asking for a timetable for the current erratic power outages should provide it themselves.

In what many describe as an insensitive and arrogant answer to a question posed by a journalist, the minister stated that he does not see the need for any timetable when the power distributor says the current situation does not require one.

“Ask those who want it to bring it, if there is. I haven’t seen any timetable,” he stated.

Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh had earlier denied that the country has returned to the days of dumsor, as what the erratic power supply in the country under John Dramani Mahama was referred to.

“If we are comparing four years, four years, NPP administration energy sector is 300 times better than John Mahama… it’s far much better than John Mahama ever did…

“I’ve promised you that we are going to work on it and it’s not a work that is a single event; it’s a process, and we’ll continue to work on it for the energy sector to become better,” he stated.



GA/SARA

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