Electricity politics!
I had wanted to continue my previous consideration of the contents of the two extant books of the records of the achievements of our two major parties, but I have had to postpone it because of a pressing issue that has caught my attention.
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Early this week, the cascading protests over the bizarre and invariably escalating electricity billings for domestic, commercial and industrial consumers reached a crescendo as the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) finally got into the act to alleviate the burdens of harried, confused and angry consumers. PURC directed the electricity and water sectors to cease the operations of their new billing softwares which have been blamed for the higher than anticipated bills borne by helpless consumers.
Before one could say Jack, the flag-bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, got into the act with a statement decrying as usual the incompetence of this government, comparing our billing rates unfavourably with that of neighbouring Ivory Coast, and making vague, imprecise promises to change the situation if elected in the general election in November later this year. Of course, this statement was a blatant display of opportunism, no more no less. He further made remarks which demonstrated clearly the stark ideological differences between our social democratic government and the extreme capitalistic, profit-seeking propensities of the NPP.
As for instance, he said that: ‘’It is important for us to recognise in Ghana that whatever we are doing, we are doing so in a global context; and if we don’t recognise that, many of the decisions we make about the management of our economy are going to put us at a disadvantage from the word go.’’ Does Ghana exist to please its neighbours and the world? Were nation states crafted a few hundred years ago to compete with each other or to create a peaceful environment for life and the pursuit of happiness by citizens?
Global competitiveness
It never ceases to puzzle me exactly when some of us rail on and on about global competitiveness as if nation-building is a profit and loss affair in which we seek to pass others along a competitive track imposed willy-nilly on us by a pitiless fate. No. I do not believe, neither do I accept that we build our societies to impress others or to belittle the efforts of others, much like the proverbial foolish neighbours who prefer showing off to the construction of a peaceable happy home in which individual talents may flourish and neighbours may not feel threatened.
Manifesto
But this is tangential to the pressing issue of our electricity tariffs now the subject of intense public discourse in all media. As a matter of fact, the NPP’s position on the current problem has been informed by two things; the seeming unpreparedness of the party for a manifesto-based campaign in the coming election, and the directly related but peculiar and completely indefensible practice since late 1992 for the party to choose its presidential candidate early.
This is because you cannot meaningfully produce a party manifesto without seeing and experiencing the bulk of whatever has been done by the sitting government even though there are ideological differences that result willy-nilly in different outcomes for similar policy choices. It follows therefore that the early choice of candidate cannot be helpful in crafting a relevant campaign message nor sustain it as things do change over time, and it be more worthwhile to do both in the last year of the tenure of the sitting government. The impression is thus created with this early choice that what matters is the capture of power, and not what to do with it.
Therefore, I see the NPP leader’s statement as opportunistic and not the result of a deliberate thought-out policy because of these considerations, especially seeing that these kinds of problems occurring relatively early can be resolved adequately to the satisfaction of consumers without discernible political costs to the government seeking re-election. If the statement had flowed naturally from a manifesto plank on energy and power, we would have been blessed with rationality in the discourse even as we all struggle to pay the bills we must pay to get light.
Once you are chosen early, a leader has nothing much to say to the electorate in his interactions with them apart from proclaiming his difference in personality and temperament from the subsisting one. In the event, statements such as these are hurriedly put together to act as a placebo for real, concrete solutions embedded in deliberate thinking on the subject matter.
It is ultimately our people who suffer in this as they are denied the chance to weigh the options available in whichever sector of the national economy the politicians are talking about. Already, as I write, there are reports of varying alterations in the tariffs being paid by consumers as the measures and directives of PURC begin to bite.
Promises
To contribute meaningfully to public discourse in an election year, it is simply not enough to promise reductions, but to do so with figures and timelines because at bottom, one takes the electorate seriously and respects their judgement on matters of concern to them. It would not do after six successful elections and the growing sophistication of the electorate, to think any statement addressing a current problem promising heaven on earth would do the trick.
The earlier off-the-cuff promise by the NPP to build 350 day SHSs following the NDC’s 200 schools promise reveals the problems inherent in such empty promises. The NPP promised in reality to build 150 as it was explained that 200 out of this figure are the ones being constructed by the current government! The insincerity is self-evident as a backhanded compliment to the efforts of the current government.
Energy is a vital component of our daily lives whether as individuals, families, commercial or industrial entities, and it simply is not good enough to put out statements which seem to mock the intelligence of the electorate in the quest for power.