A Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo believes that the power outages being experienced in parts of the country are creating disaffection for the flagbearer of the New Patritoc Party (NPP), Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia ahead of the 2024 general elections.
He wondered why anybody would jeopardize the chances of the Vice President with the power cuts.
Prof Gyampo indicated that it was an insult to the sensibility and intelligence of Ghanaians to christine the power outage a name other than Dumsor.
He says that no other name can best describe the challenge other than ‘dumsor.
“It is a blatant insult to the intelligence and sensibilities of Ghanaians. I am wondering why anybody would do this deliberately and cause more disaffection for Dr Bawumia. If it is dumsor, it is dumsor. We just want our lights on,” he said on the Key Point on TV3 Saturday, May 11.
For his part, Government spokesperson on Governance and Security, Palgrave Boakye Danquah said that Ghana was not yet out of the power challenges.
“I am not sure we are out of the woods yet,” he said on the same show.
Recently, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo observed that the country was currently experiencing a stable power supply.
He indicated that the power outages the people experienced have been resolved following the completion of the maintenance works on the transformers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
President Akufo-Addo assured the people of Ghana that they would not experience the erratic power supply (Dumsor) that occurred under the Mahama administration, again.
“Issues surrounding the maintenance of the transformers have been resolved, Indeed we have witnessed stable power supply across the country with no load shedding reported anywhere yesterday…I am confident that the unfortunate era of dumsor will not return,” he said during the Workers’ Day celebration in Accra on Wednesday.
Prior to his address, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw-Baah had told him to immediately resolve the power outages.
He said that it is regrettable that after experiencing power challenges previously, Ghanains are witnessing the problem again currently.
“It is regrettable that people have to experience dumsor again, please do something about dumsor now,” he said in his May Day address.
Dr Yaw-Baah, further stated that it appears there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
In his view, the programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was not yielding the expected results for workers.
“It appears there is no end in sight for the challenges, we were told that an IMF bailout will help but we know that an IMF bailout can’t be the solution to the economic hardship…We have a lot to do to protect the workers of Ghana,” he said.
Regarding the challenges of the Cedi, Dr Yaw Baah said in order to deal with the woes there’s a need to reduce importation.
He said import requires the exchange of the local currency into dollars.
This, he said, strains on the Cedi hence, the need to reduce the import and consumption of locally produced foods.
He said “If we want our Cedi to be stable we should reduce import and consume what we produce in Ghana.”
The theme for the celebrations in Ghana is “Elections 2024: The Role of Workers and Social Partners in Securing Peaceful Elections for National Development.”
Ahead of the general elections, Dr Yaw-Baah urged the Electoral Commission to deliver free, fair, and transparent elections.
He also asked the Police and the judiciary to play their roles effectively to ensure credible polls.
