Hit the streets, protest for months over ‘dumsor’ - Chief

The Paramount Chief of Western Nzema traditional area Awulae Annor Adjaye III is rallying the Ghanaian youth to hit the streets and stay there for months to force the government to address the incessant power crisis.

“You want to make a revolution and want to address dumsor and you take one day to the streets and you think it will be solved? It can’t be solved! If president [John] Mahama can’t fix it and you want to show him that he can’t fix it, stay in the streets for one month; don’t go home, don’t sleep, don’t eat, die in the streets – that is revolution,” the traditional leader told hundreds of youth at a public event organised by pressure group Occupy Ghana at the GNAT Hall in Takoradi over the weekend.

The John Mahama-led administration has promised to fix the erratic electricity supply by the end of 2015 as it expects two power barges from Turkey to address the deficit in megawatts in the national grid.

A group of celebrities including actress Yvonne Nelson, EL, DKB and Edem led thousands of Ghanaians a few days ago in a protest march dubbed #Dumsormuststop vigil to drum home the need to immediately solve the crisis.

Awulae Adjaye III described such protests as ineffective and “a joke” because the government sees that normal. The vocal paramount chief said for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to take the populace seriously, the youth in particular, must stage a sustained revolution to attract the attention of the president to deal with the power crisis confronting Ghana.

He said the masses need to go on a hunger strike among others.

“Sometimes I just laugh when people talk about dumsor, dumsor and then they go to the streets for one day.

“You people are jokers. You go to the streets one day and you come back… you think you can solve the problem? You can’t solve any problem with this type of arrangement… stay in the streets for three months and I will support you. Mahama knows me very well… and I will tell him why. You are not committed to doing what you have to do and you talk about dumsor, you’ll sleep in the darkness till doom’s day,” Awulae Adjaye III noted.