Open letter to President Akufo-Addo

 To sell or not to sell ECG or VRA

Dear President, I wish to dilate a little on the MIDA Project and to offer my strong views on the need to abandon this saga. Ghanaians are great if they are given the free hand to operate without political interference.

Before I proceed, let me frankly say again that leadership and poor governance have been a bane of Africa’s growth and development.

Is it not true that civilisation started in Africa along the Nile and in Egypt with their hieroglyphics and great mathematicians and scientists with the Egyptian mummies?

Is it not true that Dr Kwame Nkrumah rubbed shoulders with great leaders of the world such as Krusche of Russia and Kennedy of USA, which I call the triangular leaders of our time i.e. K.K. to K—Kwame to Kruschev to Kennedy?

Mr President, today in Africa, you represent that leadership of boldness and foresight and that leadership is already showing results for us all to see clearly.

I believe Ghana in two years will be a shining star as before.

Mr President, I worked closely with you in the 70s during the UNIGOV days. It was not easy but we sailed through.

Mr President, by my own research all over the world, Ghanaians are great in their fields of endeavour, from Nasser and even our Volta River Authority (VRA) here in Ghana, which has two of the best six leading experts of the world who can turn the fortunes of the VRA and Electricy Company of Ghana (ECG) around, if given the free hand to do so.

The Malaysians came, took over the harbour and telecom; nothing good came out of it. Our assets were used to make money for their company.

The South Africans came, took over Ghana Water; nothing substantial came out of it.

Mr President, Ghana is too rich to let go her precious assets, both human capital and natural assets bestowed freely on us by nature. You have started leading the way to recovery.

From the Scouts, to the Young Pioneer Movement and as an industrialist, I worked closely with almost all the governments. Out of 191 countries polled recently in the world, Ghana was rated first in terms of human capital and natural resources.

What we need now is a benign dictator who will apply the rule of law to get maximum results and the rest will help you. Get the needed results in sanitation, in quality education, in proper religion, not the current noise in the name of God, Christ, Mohammed and Traditional religion.

Mr President, Rwanda is leading the way. Lead us to Heaven.

Mr President, who owes ECG? It is our government which owes ECG. The government has made it a religious responsibility to default in electricity consumption payment.
ECG is in a mess today because of the reckless handling of the company’s activities over the years. As I write, the heaviest debtor or power thief is the government.
For me, this is an irresponsible attitude towards state-owned enterprises.

I am always appalled when I hear that state institutions cannot be profitable; yet we hardly ask why they are not profitable, simply because those who give a dog a bad name to hang it are responsible for the bad name of the dog.

I am certain that the ECG is highly profitable, not because it is a power distribution entity of the state but because the establishment is awash with international standard-trained” technical men and women who are committed and dedicated towards providing electricity to the people of Ghana.

This assertion is not out of vague assumption but true to the fact. We recall in the 80s when Ghana was hit by severe drought that dried up our rivers and lakes and the very recent “dumsor”.

These dedicated men and women did not rest on their oars. They managed to keep the country alight, though with challenges. It is based on this that I am sure power generation is going to become cheap.

They will excel beyond imagination

Mr President, we as a nation cannot afford to lose these giants of industry because when the private men take over, they recruit their own people to the disadvantage of the trained Ghanaian whose remuneration stays in the country; whereas the so-called inexperienced so-called expatriate, whose salary is hugely denominated in dollars, repatriates it to his home country.

The danger I foresee is quite frightening and highly detrimental to the security of Ghana. When a juicy state monopoly is handed over to a foreign private monopoly, there is a grave danger of the country being taken hostage by the private profit-minded entity.

In modern Business Administration, it is the management of the company that fixes the price.

It will, therefore, be very difficult for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to fix tariffs (if they will be there at all.) The “profit person” is minded by profit only but has no feeling for the aspirations of the people, irrespective of their pockets; this is the reason why electricity tariffs vary in Ghana due to the socio-economic circumstances.

For the private man, it is not an issue, profit –profit –profit is the chorus.

Additionally, the country stands the risk of crashing its power sector built strongly over the years if ever there is a problem between Ghana and America.

Other countries suffered this when they disagreed at international platforms with America i.e. Iran, Cuba, Russia, Zimbabwe, China, in the 60s.

These countries have all been denied access to the American market.

Mr President, according to my research, most of the power-generating plants being used by national power producers are all American technology.

If America has a problem with Ghana today and decides to impose sanctions, Ghana will suffer immensely; and as the sages say ,“You do not put all your eggs in one basket”.

The way forward

Mr President, it is my candid opinion that it will be of paramount strategic national security interest for the people of Ghana to own and manage their own national power company.

I suggest, therefore, that to avoid the mismanagement and remote political controlling of the management of the ECG, we place the national distribution on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

In so doing, we shall avoid cronyism, red tape, mismanagement and old boyism, which are the bane of the successful management of the ECG.

Mr President, I believe strongly that Ghana shall succeed under your esteemed tutelage for others to learn under your feet like that of the biblical Gamaliel. God bless you to make our nation strong and fruitful.

Tobgui Gobah Tengey
(COS)
Tel: 0243606401 / 0208110154
Chief of Staff Forum For Kings And Traditional leaders of Africa