Former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, has accused the government of plunging the country back into power rationing, also known as dumsor.
In a statement, he said the relapse into power rationing was “due to the ineptitude and mismanagement of the energy sector” by the governing New Patriotic Party.
“Today the Ministry of Energy having been exposed badly with the current dumsor the nation is witnessing is moving away from its earlier position that Power outages were solely a result of financial challenges.”
In view of this, the Yapei Kusawgu MP called on the government to “immediately desist from the blatant deception and publish the Load Shedding Time Table to enable Ghanaians plan their daily schedules. The Minister of Energy is hereby put on notice that failure to comply within 24 hours will compel us to explore all available options under the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament not excluding a vote of censure on him.”
The recent power sector concerns are because some Ghanaians have been experiencing consistent power cuts in recent weeks.
‘Dumsor finally resolved’
These concerns come amidst the government’s insistence that it has solved the problems with dumsor in the power sector.
President Nana Akufo-Addo in his State of the Nation address cited stable power supply as the doing of his administration.
“It gives me great pleasure to be able to say that we have overcome the dumsor menace,” the President declared.
He, however, admitted that Ghana was not out of the woods yet.
“I cannot say we have resolved all our energy problems. It is still a work in progress. Further, the five years of energy crisis led to the signing of what can only be described as usurious contracts that have landed our country with a huge financial burden. The take or pay contracts resulted in the country being saddled with expensive excess power and our having to pay nearly US$1billion in 2018 and 2019 for power we do not need.”
Find below the full statement from Jinapor
Publish Load Shedding Time Table Within 24 Hours Or Face Our Wrath
The Minister for Energy, Mr. Peter Amewu must with immediate effect lift his unlawful gagging orders which he has imposed on the Power Sector SOEs preventing them from publishing an already prepared Load Shedding Time Table.
It is instructive to note that GRIDCo has been clandestinely shedding about 200MW since the first week of February this year with no end in sight.
Let me be clear, that the dreaded DUMSOR which the Mahama administration resolved is sadly back due to the ineptitude and mismanagement of the energy sector.
Ironically, this Government has consistently maintained that the nation has too much power generation and does not even know what to do with the excess capacity.
Today the Ministry of Energy having been exposed badly with the current DUMSOR the nation is witnessing is moving away from its earlier position that Power outages was solely a result of financial challenges.
For the records, this Government has not procured a single drum of Light Crude Oil (LCO) since 2019.
I therefore call on the Akuffo-Addo-led Government to immediately desist from the blatant deception and publish the Load Shedding Time Table to enable Ghanaians plan their daily schedules.
The Minister of Energy is hereby put on notice that failure to comply within 24 hours will compel us to explore all available options under the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament not excluding a vote of censure on him.
Enough of the deception and lack of transparency in Ghana’s energy sector. Ghana deserves better.
John Abdulai Jinapor
Former Deputy Minister of Energy
