Join the march for light: won gbo part 1

I met my neighbour and friend Kwesi Appiah the carpenter, at the usual T. Junction yesterday. It was around 5.00pm and he had with him his bag of work tools. The lovers of multi-party democracy that we are, we discussed various issues shaping our lives today, including of course, the merciless erratic load-shedding we are being subjected to, now termed “Dumsor Dumsor”. After about ten minutes of conversation, Kwesi Appiah told me he had to leave for work. At 5.15pm? “I thought you had closed?!” I queried with much amazement. Kwesi explained to me, that ever since President Mahama started to inflict 24 solid hours of power outage at his work place, his social schedule has changed. “My broda”, he said, “this time I sleep according to the light, so when Mahama gives it to me at 6.00pm, that is the time I go to work”.

Fellow Ghanaians, this is how up-side-down President John Mahama has turned our lives. It is now common sight to see well dressed gentlemen leaving barbering shops wearing bandanas and “Kalyboses”. By force motor-ways, side-punks and half-bows have become standard haircuts whenever you visit the barbers shop in the evening. That is how clownish we have become.

Tragedies in our hospitals as a result of dumsor are no longer news. Reports of deaths during surgery, child delivery and incubator sustenance, have become so regular, that one can afford to respond to such happenings, with “Ok”. This is how worthless the thin line between life and death has become, at our hospitals.

As for the effect of the dumsor on industries, and jobs, there seems to be nothing new to cry about now. The media is now virtually drenched in the tears of workers who are being laid off, artisans who are losing their businesses, cold store operators who are incurring huge loses, manufacturing companies who are being pushed out if the global competitive market, and hospitality and industrial service providers who are now looking to God for survival. The otherwise ordinary iced-water from our fridge after a hard day’s work has now become a scarcity.

Our entertainment industry has not been spared the effect of the dumsor. Recording studios are now running on stand-by generators so up-coming musicians are now finding it difficult to record their demos; it’s too expensive. The movie industry is not being spared. They have to shoot scenes, depending on stand-by generators, and it is sky-rocketing the cost of production. Faced with stiff competition especially from Nigeria and now from Southern Africa, the entertainment industry in Ghana, is now struggling to keep its head above waters.

Nobody is being spared the negative effect of this dumsor; nobody can run from it. It is crazy, the worst this nation has ever experienced.

It is an indisputable truth: we are dying. Our life has been turned upside down with this 3-year-running dumsor, and with the promise and fail that has been flowing from the President’s own honey tongue, there seems to be no regular supply of light very soon.

The situation is precarious and people are really pissed. President Mahama has not helped matters with his promises and failures. To add assault to injury, in the hope of watering down the effects of his incompetency, President Mahama sent his propagandist goons to spread the word that the erratic power supply has come about as a result of the failure of the NPP administration to add a single megawatt of energy to the national grid in its eight years in office. But the people of Ghana are discerning. They remember so well that the NPP did not bequeath a dumsor country to the NDC in 2009.Today, like a dog with its tail between its legs, the NDC is appealing to the NPP to provide alternative solutions to the dumsor crisis.

Whichever way it goes, what I do know for a fact, and which is indisputable, is that for whatever reason, and in whichever miraculous way, President Mahama and his NDC government were able to supply the good people of Ghana with regular power during the 2014 World Cup tournament. Again, President Mahama, and his NDC government were able to supply the good people of Ghana with regular electricity, during the Christmas holidays. Again, President Mahama and his NDC were able to supply the good people of Ghana with regular electricity during the just-ended African Cup of Nations (Afcon 2015).

By these, we should all be convinced now that the problem facing this country, as regards regular, dependable energy supply, is not that of installed capacity, but rather generating capacity! We do not have the money, or are refusing t o provide the money to buy crude oil and gas, to power these installations; and this is not good enough. This is totally unacceptable. The damage it is causing to our lives is unprecedented, and we cannot accept it any longer.

It is for these and more, that I am calling on all to join the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as they go on the peaceful “WON GBO” (WE ARE DYING) demonstration, slated for February 18th, 2015. The demonstration is to send a clear signal to President Mahama and his NDC-led government, that we are suffering under their incompetent mismanagement of the economy; it is to send a clear message to President Mahama and his NDC government that we are dying needless deaths under this incredible dumsor he is presiding over; it is to send a loud message to President Mahama and his NDC government, that if corruption has made them immune to the discomfort and sufferings caused by his unprecedented incompetency, then he should hear us: we are suffering! We are dying!!.

This is not a demonstration for only members, supporters, and sympathizers of the NPP. It is a demonstration for all who have been affected by the incompetence of President John Mahama’s administration. It is a demonstration for my friend Kwesi Appiah, the Carpenter, as much as it is a demonstration for my favourite actor, John Dumelo, and my favourite actress, Nadia Buari. Madjid Michel, Yvonne Okoro and Jackie Appiah cannot exclude themselves. It’s a fact: the dumsor is affecting them. It is affecting their business, but most importantly, it is affecting their fans! I will be expecting to see Sarkodie and Obrafuor there. The Rap Dacta, Okyeame Kwame cannot excuse himself; his Versatile Show has had to run on generator, and it is expensive. I expect to see the new head of GHAMRO, Kojo Antwi there. The dumsor is killing his Breeze FM.

Over the past few months, I have read press releases from various bodies, calling on President Mahama to do something urgent about the dumsor. Well, this is your chance to join the NPP send a clear signal to President Mahama to sit up and stop playing “monkey games with our lights and our lives. AGI, TUC, ICU, GMA, etc, the good people of Ghana will be expecting you to put meaning behind your words as you join us at the Obra Spot at 6.00am for this all-inclusive demonstration.

And if you think the sh*t we are in, has nothing to do with political leadership, think about this: the government of President Mahama paid $35million to Woyome for no work done. The Mahama government paid $15million for Akonfem and Harmatan trees. The Mahama government paid €90million to CP for no work done, yet they have gone in for a $50million loan to buy an emergency power barge, and they want us to applaud them?

18th February, 2015; the Obra Spot; 6.00am: “WON GBO” DEMO. SEE YOU THERE!!

YAW P. K. MANU