The Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has been advised to stop making a mockery of himself with his constant announcements to resign if the energy crisis does not end before January 2016.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”O1lW6ZnzIE58h2U2pKEXQsJuK9yLPGwE”]The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe who gave this advice, also charged the government to stop making promises on the energy challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe short-term solution is that they should stop promising and I think the President has stopped promising which is fine; but the Power Minister should stop making a mockery of himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Donkor has promised to resign on January 1, 2016<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0if the three-power crisis is not permanently resolved.<\/p>\n He recently came under fire when news broke that the power barges he promised will dock in Ghana by April 2015 to help ease the crisis will rather arrive in Ghana by September.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Cudjoe on Citi FM\u2019s<\/strong> news analysis programme, The Big Issue<\/strong> <\/em>said the Minister should have rather sacked himself in April when the power barges did not arrive in Ghana as promised.<\/p>\n \u201cHe actually missed the first point by setting a timeline for the barges when I think he knew quite clearly that the barges wouldn\u2019t be in by April.\u201d<\/p>\n The IMANI boss mentioned that he heard the Chief Director of the Energy Ministry suggesting that the \u201ctechnical people should stop speaking and that they are deceiving the politicians with all kinds of timelines that are not realistic. In this case, I am not too sure Dr. Kwabena Donkor is one who will just take something said to him by technicians without verifying.\u201d<\/p>\n He was of the view that the energy problem \u201chas gone beyond discussion. I think we just need government to act that fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Privatize ECG<\/strong><\/p>\n The IMANI President recommended that 80% of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) must be privatized over a period of years.<\/p>\n According to him, the President\u2019s assertion that the power crisis is not a money problem but a technical problem is not entirely accurate.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that indeed, the nation has very old transmission lines and very old infrastructure which clearly shows that \u201cthere is some element of truth on the issue of technical loss\u2026but there is also clearly the issue of money as well \u2013 money in terms of what decisions are being made for even this emergency power barges\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is also a function of money otherwise, if it were not, we will not necessarily be asking for some private participation in electricity distribution. He stressed that Ghanaians need to see efficiency because \u201cthose things will set the ground for effective public-private participation in the electricity supply so it\u2019s money, not technical.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nThis is something I totally agree with government. I will think that ECG should go private \u2013 80% of it should be privatized if for 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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