Stop insulting Ghanaians, comrade Mahama!

It took all 8 years that the Mills-Mahama duo held the reins of governance for the chronic and perennial problem of erratic power supply in the country, infamously dubbed “Dumsor,” to remarkably abate.

So it beats the imagination of any studious and avid observer of the Fourth Republican Ghanaian political scene to hear former President John Dramani Mahama proudly thump his chest and drunkenly jive and attempt to take undeserved credit for having significantly improved the country’s economy prior to him handing over the democratic reins of governance to the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) – (See “Stop Deceiving Ghanaians; NDC Resolved ‘Dumsor’ – Mahama to NPP” Modernghana.com 11/1/18).

If, indeed, Mr. Mahama and his National Democratic Congress’ regime resolved the perennial problem of “Dumsor,” then what was the reason for demanding the resignation of Dr. Kwabena Donkor, for whom the former President had custom-tailored the erstwhile Power Ministry, which Mr. Mahama then promptly dissolved? Dr. Donkor would unreservedly and publicly apologize for having scandalously failed to do due diligence with the brokering of the AMERI power deal and the effective ending of the energy crisis within the period that he had publicly promised to do so.

You see, in his megalomaniacal quest to assuming the Presidency, after having wasted four-and-half long years of prime national development time, the former Atta-Mills’ arch-lieutenant appears to have so soon forgotten that the hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian and foreign entrepreneurs and workers who lost their businesses and sources of income or livelihood have yet to overcome the trauma unleashed on them by the gross administrative incompetence of the former Rawlings’ Communication Minister. He may also have forgotten this, but most Ghanaians have not so soon forgotten Mr. Mahama’s insult to them, at the peak of the Dumsor crisis, that it was only entrepreneurs and workers who woefully lacked common sense and creativity who had failed to invent other alternatives to meaningfully and productively get around and over the Dumsor crisis.

We ask about the summary dismissal of the former Power Minister because, on the one hand, while he forced Dr. Donkor out of his post at the Power Ministry for gross managerial ineptitude, nevertheless, Mr. Mahama now wants to conveniently and opportunistically take credit for the AMERI Power Deal which Dr. Donkor was accused of having recklessly bungled. It is also rather risible for the former NDC-Member of Parliament for Bole, in the Northern Region, to haughtily claim to have added a significant capacity of the electricity generated in the country, when one reckons the fact that it was former President John Agyekum-Kufuor, and the New Patriotic Party, and not either former President Jerry John Rawlings or Monsieur John Evans Atta-Mills, or John Mahama, who constructed both the Bui Power Plant or the Kpong Power Plant, which are the two most significant energy generating plants in the country after Akosombo.

I must also emphasize to Mr. Mahama that between July and August this year, when I visited Ghana with my family, Ghanaians were not totally out of the proverbial woods vis-à-vis the Dumsor crisis. President Akufo-Addo had, however, managed to drastically abate the Dumsor crisis. My family and I were able to access uninterrupted energy supply because power supply from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was regularly supplemented by solar energy, thanks to my brother-in-law, Mr. Frederick Kwadwo Henaku, a Russian-trained mining engineer, who works in the energy industry in the country, who had installed solar panels on the roof of his house.

Indeed, if he really cared about the energy needs of the country and, by extension, the country’s economic and industrial growth and development, Mr. Mahama would since long have ensured that the astronomical cost of solar power was manageable and affordable to the overwhelming majority of Ghanaian citizens, especially those resident in our rural communities. Now, Mr. Mahama needs to tell Ghanaians precisely how and when during his four-and-year tenure he “stabilized” the country’s economy. And also the rate of economic growth of the country by the time that he left office in January 2017, compared to the country’s economic growth rate and capacity under the current Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party. And then we can begin to talk about realpolitik, that is, the serious art and craft of progressive and democratic governance.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net