Mahama Refuses to Face Load Shedding Reality

President John Mahama says he will not declare a return to load shedding despite admitting there are challenges with power supply in the country. Addressing Muslims on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the president attributed the recent power outages to “sabotage in Nigeria” which is preventing the supply of crude oil to power the thermal plants.
The country has relapsed into another power crisis, after few weeks of relief from the four-year-old load shedding regime popularly referred to as dumsor.
The crisis has led to deaths, loss of jobs and collapse of many businesses. In his state of the nation address in February this year the president announced his government had fixed the power crisis.
“I stood before this very august house and promised to fix the power sector deficit that at the time had become a significant constraint to the economic growth and a destruction to Ghanaians both home and at work.
“This was a time of considerable national anxiety. The deficit brought about a severe power rationing and I was very much concerned. Ghanaians had to sleep in darkness or spend money to fuel generators. Businesses faced challenges, and I expressed my full regret to the nation and I took full responsibility as President and leader of this nation and commander in Chief.
He said although getting through the task was not easy, the hard work has paid off and this has “made us achieve the fastest mobilization of emergency power in the history of Ghana.”
Barely four months after his declaration the country has slid back into power crisis with a little over 240 megawatts of power shed every day. Many Ghanaians have been frustrated by the turn of events.
But speaking to Muslims at the Independence Square on Wednesday, the president said the country is facing some challenges with crude oil supply which has culminated into erratic power supply.
He was quick to add though that his government will not declare a load shedding regime just yet because the government is working feverishly to resolve the crisis.
“We have recently suffered some generational problems. Because of sabotage in Nigeria on the terminals, crude oil we ordered from Nigeria has not arrived and so it has created some generational problems for us.
“I have asked the Bulk Oil Storage company to start storing at least one month of light crude oil supply for Ghana so that in the event anything happens at the supply end in Nigeria we are not affected the way we are affected. “We are not declaring load shedding. I believe things will normalise,” he said.
Commenting on the recent challenges with the electricity billing, the president said there has been a “realignment of the billing system” and the bills have been made more transparent than they were before.
Muslims all over the world are celebrating Eid al-fitr after one month of fasting and prayer session. Eid al-Fitr means “festival of breaking the fast” and is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims the world over. The days signals the end of Islam’s holiest month of Ramadan.
In Ghana, Muslims converged at the Independence Square to offer prayers after which they will make merry.