For several weeks, I have been resisting suggestions that Ghana has a problem with keeping on the lights. A friend
of mine who lives in Kumasi has become rather vitriolic on the matter. He is liable to snap and bite anytime the
question of why we are unable to keep on the lights, come up.
I was struggling to see his point of view, until the week just past, when I experienced the power outage on several
occasions and at numerous places.
Speaking personally, I believe that the whole situation boils down to incompetence on the part of the managers of
electric power, over the decades, but most particularly in recent times.
For instance, it seems that when it comes to electric power generation, it is all along the coast. Virtually all the
power plants that the nation owns, can be found on the coast. That is certain to cause problems with deploying the
power to the northern sectors. It makes sense to spread power generation systems across the nation, at least to me.
It also seems that our concentration on the type of power plants we can build, has largely been on thermal. The last
time the nation seriously considered hydro, was at Kpong and Bui, both hailing from the Acheampong Era forty or
fifty years ago. One can even say, with some authority, that the late Col I. K. Acheampong, a military man, had a
greater vision for this country, than the bunch of fops we have had leading this country the past few decades. They
are without doubt mismanaging the State.
It is mismanagement, because there are many avenues by which electricity can be generated. These days, people put
turbines in the sea. Ghana is blessed with abundant, year-round sunshine. We have areas where we can have winds
with enough speed to turn turbines. Ghana is blessed with abundant rivers and valleys. WE are even blessed with
abundant waste, all of which can be used to manufacture electric power.
Yet, we are where we are.
As somebody who is into production and sales, I always say that if my customers were to do me the favour of
paying me ahead of time for my produce, I would not miss a single delivery. As far as I am concerned, it is the
highest of incompetence for a producer who is charging me ahead of time, to tell me that he is unable to produce
what he is to supply me.
That is dereliction of duty and breach of contract. Maybe, the time has come for us to start suing the Electricity
Company of Ghana (ECG) over unplanned power outages. Maybe, if we were to take a few millions from them,
they would find modern minds and do away with the medieval minds that is unable to keep a relatively simple thing
like electricity, in constant supply.
Speaking of medieval minds, who decided that Ghana’s revenue authorities cannot cobble together the manpower
and brains to police the nation’s borders and guard our revenue?
I have been aware of this arrangement that exists in the revenue sector, where private individuals and organizations
have been enabled/allowed to latch on to the revenue of Ghana to and to charge/receive fees for so-called services
rendered. The industries are many. Mention can be made of SGS, WestBlue, ICUMS, and others. The latest of such
ventures, scams, I would say, is SML.
Latest estimates suggest that Ghana is paying SML as much as $100 million dollars a year, to monitor revenue.
Ideally, and even rightly, this should have been the preserve of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). If the people
at GRA were to posit that they lack the technology or the brains to do this, then they should either be assisted with
the technology, or people with better brains should be found. By all means, we should not be paying a hundred
million dollars to a private company to ensure our revenue.
It is a scam, borne out of the medieval thinking that the chance at power, is the chance to enrich our friends. And
that is what the SML contract is all about. Somebody/ies with political power are hiding behind the place servers at
SML, and they are the real and true beneficiaries of the SML deal, hiking off a whopping hundred million dollars
annually.
Still on the issue of medieval thinking, somebody should tell my uncle and friend, Nana Akufo Addo, that the
person who would take over after him as president, is not his ‘successor’. This one is not ‘wofa’ things. The
Presidency of Ghana is not a family seat. It is not an ‘abusua akonwa’ that you hand over to your successor. It is a
seat won by democratic elections, by people able and fit enough to contest for it.
So somebody should tell Mr. President, that on January 7 th , 2025, whether he likes it or not, he would hand over to
the person the people of Ghana has decided to choose as President. And that person would not be his ‘successor’.
That person would rather be the person the people of Ghana have settled on to be president for four years. Whether
he likes it, or not.
