Reflections on our power situations
A new ministry has been set up. It is the Ministry of Power. It is hoped that this ministry would bring on board the kind of sharp focus required to turn the worsening energy situation around.
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The power situation plaguing the country currently is everyone’s nemesis. Even the President is not excluded. It could probably be described as his Achilles heel. No subject matter has made him sound as unreliable and incompetent as the power situation has.
On countless occasions, he has given assurances and even at a point in time declared that the power situation had ended. Then the challenge emerges again, and with it denials.
The Electricity Company first described it as a maintenance issue; then the power providers described the frequent outages as load management; then with the passage of time, it took on the name we know it for - loading shedding.
It hurts everyone; it hurts the pupil and the student preparing for examinations. It hurts the barber who has to close his shop and look up to the hills.
It makes nonsense of investments that businessmen and women make as continuous outages make it impossible for them to achieve their production goals.
As a natural consequence, a father or a mother is going to go home with the news of having been declared redundant.
And as if the frequent outages were not enough, it has now taken an erratic and arbitrary turn, making it impossible for individuals and corporate bodies to plan effectively.
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Recently I was expecting that the lights would go off at a particular period and turned out not to have. It was then that I realised how scathed we have all been by this crisis.
We have learnt to accept the worst as a way of getting by the incompetence, inconsistency and sincerely generational challenge that needs resolution. Nobody complains anymore. We are all used to it. Government communicators are on the rampage extolling the virtues of the government which has increased the energy-generating capacity.
They do not only stop there, they go ahead and point out that this government has done more than any other government in terms of energy generation. The opposition, in usual style, are running all over the place trading accusations and failing to concentrate on issues that matter the most.
But to the government, the question many ask often is; “if indeed you are doing as much as you claim you are doing, why are we in darkness?”
I can understand that investments have gestational periods after which the benefits are to be realised. But what I cannot understand is that we make all these investments and they are to a considerable extent hinged on gas supply from Nigeria.
This indeed must be the biggest of all the jokes that has been manufactured in the midst of this crisis. And sad to say, the joke is on us all. Momentarily, something is being done because we need to survive for today.
But we must go a little further to discover that there are no structural reasons to believe that 10 or 20 years from now, the situation being faced by the country would be any different.
Take a good look at the new buildings springing up across the country. Once again, they are all heavily dependent on electricity. Take the educational sector as another example. What is being taught about the power crisis? What is the Ghanaian understanding of the power crisis as in most cases, numerous foreign textbooks are relied on for that purpose?
Do we even understand the aspect of our social, cultural and economic life that has made us predisposed to this state of affairs in terms of power generation?
It will take more than simply heavy investments to turn things around. It will take more than a strong momentary will to achieve sustainable power supply.
What is needed is to put in place the requisite structures to turn things around.
Every nation at one point in time or another goes through adversity and challenges. And that is normal. But what separates nations is their response to these challenges.
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With this crisis, we’ve got an opportunity to overhaul the entire system and put in place a solid structure. Or alternatively, we can simply make a rough patch and hope the roofs do not leak anytime soon. It is a choice we have to make as a nation.
politics_today@yahoo.com