The Member of Parliament for Nkwanta North, John Oti Bless, has countered assertions that the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, is to blame for the country's erratic power outages, known commonly as 'dumsor'.
He maintained that the inconsistent power supply started during former President John Agyekum Kufuor's tenure, who attempted to address it with imported generators, even though it was not successful.
However, he said that Mahama's administration concluded its term with surplus power capacity, leaving the country with about 83% of generational capacity.
Oti Bless emphasized that the NDC flagbearer is the sole president to have taken such a measure towards resolving the energy crisis in the country.
The Ranking Member on the Government Assurances Committee in Parliament reaffirmed that Mahama is the only president in history to have resolved the power crisis, in spite of criticism.
“Dumsor has been there since time immemorial. All the heads of state or presidents in the history of this country have suffered it. Even during President Kufuor’s era, they had to import generators from outside under Kofi Adda.
“But President John Mahama was bold enough, humble enough, and took responsibility and said he was going to solve it. And he did solve it. Before President Mahama left office, we had excess capacity and our generation was about 83 percent. So, let’s get that on record that President Mahama is the only president in the history of this country who solved dumsor,” he said, according to citinewsroom.com.
His comments were in response to Dr. Opoku Prempeh's differentiation between the current power supply challenges and those during Mahama's administration.
According to the energy minister the present crisis is distinct from Mahama's 'dumsor'.
He stated that Mahama's period was marked by extended blackouts with short intervals of electricity, spanning four years.
He added that the current 'dum siesie' means brief interruptions for maintenance.
"When I entered the ministry, we had progressed from 72 to 96-hour outages with merely six hours of electricity. Currently, we are addressing 'dum siesie,' which is separate from 'dumsor.'
"Dumsor' was a phenomenon particular to John Dramani Mahama's presidency. He is the only president to have consistently exposed the nation to power outages during his entire term," he claimed.
This remark elicited significant public criticism, with accusations of neglect.
Credit: ghanaweb.com