Alex Afenyo Markin
President John Mahama is not serious about solving the erratic power supply situation (Dumsor), opposition lawmaker Alex Afenyo Markin has said, explaining that if the president really intended tackling the problem, he would have appointed a substantive Power Minister by now, to replace Dr Kwabena Donkor, who resigned from the post six months ago.
Dr Donkor resigned on December 31, 2015, after failing to fix the problem by his own deadline.
“We do not have a Power Minister; all of us are concerned about the energy situation, the power situation in this country, so, one would have thought that since Mr President made the Ministry of Power one of the ministries constituting his cabinet, six months after the resignation of Dr Kwabena Donkor, a new minister would have been appointed, [but] as we speak, can we say that that ministry is being efficiently run?” Mr Afenyo Markin asked.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, has been acting as Power Minister since Dr Donker’s resignation. He is being supported by Deputy Power Minister Mr John Jinapor.
Mr Afenyo Markin, however, is not in favour of that arrangement, since, according to him, Mr Terkper has too much on his plate to take on another major responsibility as running of the Power Ministry, which he said required absolute concentration and dedication.
“…The finance ministry has a lot of activities going on there, the Finance Minister has a lot of engagements, so what is happening doesn’t demonstrate seriousness on the part of the government in resolving the power situation because if the president is really committed to ending ‘dumsor dumsor’, he would have, by this time, appointed a substantive Power Minister.
“We cannot have a power ministry, which is so critical with respect to their activities, and there is not substantive minister. If Mr President will not appoint a substantive minister, then what is his seriousness about ending ‘dumsor dumsor’? You need a sector minister to oversee government policy, the constitution is clear under Article 76 (1) [that] cabinet should not exceed 19 and it should have a minimum of 10, Mr President brought his cabinet list and he said they are 19, the Ministry of Power is part of it, how can you truncate same? As it is, for six months the cabinet is not up to the number that Mr President himself has submitted. Are we saying that the Finance Minister goes to sit at cabinet meetings and doubles as the Power Minister?” Mr Afenyo Markin wondered.
