Ghana’s power crisis lives on and even though I do not see an end to this any time soon, the incumbent government has promised a lot—saying it’s on top of issues and the problem would be fixed before we say Jack.
To be frank, I have said Jacklyne, Jackie, Jack Daniels and even Jackie Chan—yet, there is no sign of any real progress having been made. In fact, the problem has gotten worse for Ghanaians—who are experiencing several days without power, compensated with 6-12 hours of low voltage power.
The government says things would be fixed and as usual, the ordinary Ghanaians have accepted it; sitting and waiting for the an African government that has never delivered on its promise to actually do as it has promised this time. Perhaps, the government has changed its drinking water.
For most Ghanaians, they feel they cannot do anything about the situation; because even if they take to the streets in protest, they will be met with a counter protest by certain people belonging to a different party who would regard such a national issue as that of a trivial political party matter.
Our air-wave is filled with the political propaganda nonsense in relation to the hurting power crisis—and somehow, instead of the ordinary Ghanaian challenging the governments regular exercise of buying electricity from our neighbour-Ivory Coast so that football matches can be watched or for people to be able to have fun during Easter holidays, we celebrate and enjoy.
The question is; are we a serious country looking to move forward at all?
If I have an hour of power for a day and my daughter has to do work on her school project which will take an hour or more—and she desires to also watch X-factor which will take an hour or more, where would it be prudent for me to invest that my hour power/electricity?
Of course, every reasonable person will not struggle in picking which is important; X-factor must make way for education. It’s against this background that I find it absurd that Ghanaians continue to celebrate, smile and even commend the government anytime it goes begging or paying for electricity so they can catch fun on holidays when during working days, the government literally does no such thing.
Productivity must be our priority and just as the ordinary Ghanaians, the government does not think so. If not, what is the justification for having electricity in Ghana from Good Friday to Easter Monday when majority of business are closed—and then when businesses resume on Tuesday, load-shedding sets in.
I am not sure what the problem is with our thinking faculties—and let me categorically state this, no nation can compete in a 21st century world when its citizens and leaders think like ‘donkeys’ who do not understand the most important concept of priority.
So we had power to go to Kwahu and have all the fun which obviously added little or nothing to our national progress and now that we are supposed to work, there is no power—yet we don’t see anything wrong with this?
Recently, ‘those in charge’ of United Kingdom were discussing cutting down the number of bank holidays in the country because by statistics “each bank holiday costs the UK economy £2.3bn and scrapping them would boost annual output by £19bn.”
I brought this in to show you that, in some parts of the world, people understand what working days mean—and I don’t think the UK for instance will ever distribute it’s power this way; power for weekends and holidays or for citizens to watch football matches and when it’s time to get the economy running, they will be short of power.
The fact that the citizens love it when the government provides power for trivial nonsense like to watch the African Cup of Nations and immediately take off the power when work must be done illustrates what has become important to us as people.
The government knows its people and that is why it continues to do this. Maybe the government should think about giving businesses power from 8am to 8pm and then cut it overnight for home usage—that will be my ideal load-shedding if its inevitable.
If we have to sacrifice anything, it’s the fun which we can later catch that has to go, serious businesses which will lead to a general improvement need to be sustained.
Indeed, we are part of the MESS!
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