Politicians have the best selective memory of any sub-species of humans you can find on this planet. Their perspective on issues, especially in Ghana, is often shaped by their position in the political landscape: in power or in opposition.
So what is wrong to the NDC in opposition becomes right when in power, and vice versa. It’s infuriating, but it’s a situation we have learnt to live with.
A recently commenced load shedding exercise has let me cast my mind back to the last major one, which occurred when the NPP under President John Agyekum Kuffour were in power. That one occurred because of low water levels in the Akosombo Dam, the main hydro-electric power source in Ghana.
The then opposition NDC cried bloody hell, and often wondered aloud how the government could let things come to such a deplorable situation. When they ascended to power a few years later, one could at least assume that all their complaints over such a situation could lead to a better handling of the energy sector.
Instead we have had two or three load shedding exercises since the change of government in 2008. In fact in Ghana we’ve always had the light-outs people have affectionately dubbed ‘dum-sor’, but the official load shedding exercises have become much more rampant in recent times.
This recent one, caused by a shutdown of gas from Nigeria through the West African gas pipeline, is the worst in living memory. My power was out for 12 hours Thursday night to Friday morning, yet here I am Saturday morning and I have been taken off for another 12 hours.
ECG themselves are clueless, I recall hearing their spokesperson on television saying the power supply has become too erratic for them to provide a timetable. I thought they were in charge of the power supply, so who makes it erratic if not them?