Karpower faces imminent shutdown?

Mahama with his takashie administration has lived up to his names as incompetent, mediocre and reckless. The hollow explanations given in aggressive postures in the energy sector to brush aside Dumsor has turned into arrogance leading to the Presidential declaration in parliament -- I'll fix it. Unfortunately the declaration have turned to be meaningless bloviating and mere political galamsey talk meant to throw dust into the eyes of the people. There is clearly no end to the sufferings, miseries and deaths from the energy sector mess.

Because of incompetence, Mahama has bungled with all the opportunities which have offered themselves in the last 8 years. The fanfare around the colossal acquisition of the Turkish Karpower to generate over 210 megawatts is turning to be a huge national liability as a result of its severe negative effect on the environment, coming only out of vision-less and mediocre leadership.

Tema New Town residents are up in arms against the management of the plant and the Mahama administration whose acts and omissions have contributed to pollution of the area arising from smoke fumes from Karpower plant. Lives and property are being threatened in the vicinity. The negative environmental effect is becoming unbearable and insiders believe that a relocation is imminent since they can't figure this unwanted phenomenon going on for years.

The catch-22 factor is the fact that, Karpower shut down will worsen the Dumsor menace and its relocation will take at least 6 months and the prospect of such an event pierces the hearts of Mahama and his good-for -nothing cabinet especially with the elections few weeks ahead. At the same time, Mahama should not be seen to be insensitive to the plight of Tema residents.

The situation is grim and awful for Mahama/NDC. They sense political power gradually slipping through their hands and they reckon the situation could get worse with any Karpower shutdown. They are trying very hard to contain the anger of Tema New town residents which can culminate into a legitimate and threatening demonstration.

Critical minds even think the Karpower plant is a cheap dilapidated second hand, acquired and refurbished and sold to Ghana at a huge cost and cannot be an efficient generator just as FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, which was similarly acquired. Also, it is now known that the government did not prepare and plan the Karpower project well because they naively forgot to incorporate Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in the scheme.

Still, NDC insiders think, ex-Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor might have anticipated the disastrous loophole in the chain and cleverly opted out of cabinet 6 months ago to dodge responsibility.

Confused Flagstaff house is in near turmoil figuring out the best way out of this monumental failure in executive management as they are about to be exposed as wayward, mediocre and bad Planners just as butterflies who cannot fly. Another insider confesses that Mahama clearly is not himself with his regional tours. He is a disorganized man as he is fully aware of the status of Karpower. Unfortunately, there is no escape route for him. The next cabinet meetings will be full of desperation and tension. They will be pinsoo-oo.

NDC have been political pretenders and impostors from day one thriving on lies. They are visionless. They pretend. They are thieves. They pretend. Rawlings recent confession that after all he took the Abacha bribe 18 years ago should be a good lesson for Ghanaians. Who knows? Mahama may similarly confess in 10 years' time that he has actually proved visionless, a bribe taker and a criminal after all. The ironical world indeed.

Charles Agbenu

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