A presidential staffer Clement Apaak says the ongoing power crisis that has engulfed the country could not have been predicted and so the president should not take the flak for it.
According to him, the ongoing crisis which is popularly called “dumsor” is only temporary and Ghanaians must bear with the government.
Consumers of electricity across the country are angry with a pronounced new load shedding regime announced by electricity distributors – ECG.
In the new regime, consumers will now endure 12 hours of power outage out of 60 hours.
Though the government, through the Ministry of Energy has publicly apologised for the sorry state of Ghana’s power supply, the president has not been spared the public criticism.
On Joy FM’s newsfile programme on Saturday, Clement Apaak said “the president is not a soothsayer” and could not have predicted the power challenges currently facing the country.
He said the challenges are three-pronged-limited gas supply from Nigeria, a damaged plant as well as the refurbishment of the TICO plant.
Clement Apaak said whether by “fate or coincidence” all three have happened at the same time and the country is going through an uncomfortable situation.
That notwithstanding, he said the president and the government are working within the short to medium term to resolve the challenges facing the country. He said the president still has his vision of providing 5000 megawatt of power and he will achieve that by 2016.
Chairman of the NPP Constitution committee Ayikoi Otoo who was also on the show said the government cannot be excused for plunging the country into power crisis.
He said for a party that rode on propaganda and chided the erstwhile Kufuor administration for a similar power crisis cannot now come back with excuses.