Why can’t you promise us a 24-hour electricity supply?

In his desperation to return to the presidency after being rejected massively in two consecutive elections in 2016 and 2020, the NDC’s 2024 flagbearer, former President John Dramani Mahama, is bizarrely giving a tall list of richly interesting promises, except the all-important 24-hour electricity supply.

Truly, of all the miseries I yet have witnessed in Ghana, it seems to me that the Mahama’s dumsor, which lasted for well over four years, remains the most regrettable experience in contemporary Ghana.

My dear reader, considering the negative effects of dumsor, it would only take a ‘Madam Theresa’ to forgive Mahama for wilfully keeping Ghanaians in darkness and collapsing businesses and industries for well over four years.

If you recall, the then-running mate of NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, made it clear to the good people of Ghana that the dumsor was a result of financial constraints and nothing else.

Based on the simplest definition of a failed state, I would like to submit that Ghana found itself in the doldrums of a failed state between 2012 and 2016 largely due to the unspeakable dumsor which threatened the security of the country and the livelihood of most Ghanaians.

The simplest definition of a failed state is one that cannot provide its basic responsibilities such as electricity which is a security threat to a nation.

My dear reader, tell me, if the dumsor was a priority for the Mahama administration, how come the outgone NDC administration paid dubious judgment debts to the tune of GHC800 million instead of purchasing fuel to generate power?

In the days of the irritating dumsor under the Mahama administration, we witnessed the endless buzzing of generators all over the country. Most businesses and industries were forced to close down amid massive unemployment.

In fact, self-employers like Hairdressers, Ice Kenkey Sellers, and Butchers, among others, were the worst affected.

The disgustingly annoying and costly buzzing of generators across the length and breadth of the country, unfortunately, went on for well over four years to the utter dismay of the good people of Ghana.

Given the circumstances, we can understand how and why some concerned Ghanaians,

including some supporters within the NDC are expressing their arousing disgust over former President Mahama’s desperation to return to the presidency after being voted against massively in 2016 and 2020.

Shockingly, in his desperation to solve serious problems such as dumsor, Mahama disappointingly signed a superfluous ‘Take or Pay’ Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) in which Ghana is needlessly paying over $600 million per year for extra power we do not need.

By gleefully signing the excessive Power Purchasing Agreements and entering into a calamitous ‘Take or Pay’ deal, Ghanaian consumers are unfairly being forced to pay exorbitant electricity tariffs.

It is quite disheartening to see the NDC loyalists whose businesses were wilfully crippled by Mahama’s appalling dumsor bizarrely clamouring for the return of Ex-President Mahama.

The loyal supporters of Mahama should accept the painful fact that discerning Ghanaians have overcome their supposed memory loss and cannot so soon forget the terrible errors in judgment which culminated in economic hardships amid the business crippling dumsor.

We do not have to look any further than the 2016 and 2020 general election results to acknowledge how Ghanaians were disgusted over Mahama’s dreadful errors in decision which culminated in the unspeakable dumsor.

Although the sceptics hold the preponderance of the argument about former President Mahama’s unpopularity, the diehard supporters will keep cheering him on.

Indeed, the vast majority of the NDC loyalists are living in denial about former President Mahama’s perceived capability and popularity and will thus push him to another embarrassment

in 2024.

The all-important question every discerning Ghanaian should be asking the Mahama loyalist is: where is the justification for former President Mahama’s popularity and competence when his terrible errors in judgment sent Ghanaians into darkness for well over four years?

How can the diehard supporters convince some of us about former President Mahama’s ability to lead Ghana again when he woefully wasted Ghana’s scarce resources instead of purchasing fuel to generate power?

Mahama allegedly doled out huge sums of money to all sorts of people who contributed nothing to the nation-building. Madam Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party comes to mind.

Some of us, as a matter of principle, are not oblivious to the inexpressible anguish and the negative effects of dumsor, and therefore we are well aware of the apocalypse of Mahama reclaiming the presidency in 2024.