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Power outage and the politics

Editorial

Energy is one the critical components needed for the development of any country. Yet, the politics of power outages in this country is an interesting one. It is a subject which politicians love flaunting about especially on the campaign platform to the dismay of the gentlemen who are in the thick of affairs and appreciate the real challenges of this country with regards to energy generation and distribution.

Politicians love garnishing the electricity raps with promises bordering more on utopian dreams than realism. One could easily remember the campaign promises of both the two major political parties in the country. Where one was promising energy for all in the near future, the other was wrongfully, though intentional, blaming the current challenge on an external factor which the country or authority has no control over. We were also told that by the end of December last year, power outage or load shedding would have been a thing of the past, but what do we see?

The campaign season is over and cheap and baseless platform talk has given way to realism. It is now obvious that power outages will not go away anytime soon, that is the reality and Ghanaians will have to brace themselves for the discomfort ahead.
Whereas the Energy Ministry claimed a countrywide power supply restoration would be achieved in a few days time, the VRA was more sincere steering clear of politically-coated timeline promises. As they rightly put it, the machinery for generation and distributions are old and needs replacement, while other transformers which have been overloaded also need new installations. The bottom line is both the VRA and ECG need more money to embark on grave transformation of their machinery.
Sincerity in managing nationwide challenges is the way to go. Ghanaians need to know what the challenges are so they do not make uninformed comments whenever the power goes off. Interestingly some do not even know the difference between faults and load shedding.

The periodic and intermittent reference to the crude oil supply as being the main source of the shortfall is only part of the challenge.
The CEO of the VRA, Kweku Awortwi, was more forthcoming with the remote causes of the challenges of power generation in the country than the politicians in the control room of governance as well as those in opposition ready to pounce on any little opportunity.

The $400 million government and ECG indebtedness to the VRA is enough challenge to stifle power generation in the country, yet it is something we love ignoring than tackling as a nation. Why are the MMDAs unwilling to pay their debts?
Until we decouple platform political talk from realism, serious businesses such as power generation and supply, power outages will remain a characteristic of the face of this nation

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