General News of Friday, 13 February 2015
Source: Daily Guide
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper Denkyira West, Benjamin Kofi Ayeh, has expressed surprise at the comment purportedly made by the first deputy speaker of parliament, Ebo Barton-Odro, on a local radio station to the effect that business people should not attribute the collapse of their businesses to the current energy crisis.
The first deputy speaker was alleged to have said that business people or companies failed to do proper planning that is why they are experiencing serious problems in the running of their businesses in the face of the energy crisis confronting the country.
But the Upper Denkyira West MP, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE in parliament yesterday, said Ebo Barton-Odro does not understand the intricacies of running big businesses that depend on energy for production and that was the reason why he (Barton-Odro) spoke like that.
“The first deputy speaker is a lawyer and lawmaker and not a production manager of a big company that depends heavily on electricity for its production, otherwise he would not have made that comment,” the MP noted.
The MP also observed that the first deputy speaker was afraid of the effect of the intended demonstration under the aegis of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) scheduled for February 18, that was why he made that statement, just to water down the effect of the energy crisis.
Mr. Kofi Ayeh told DAILY GUIDE that the erratic power supply was greatly affecting big companies as well as the mining industry.
“The people in government do not seem to appreciate the enormity of the problems Ghanaians are going through because of this ‘dumsor, dumsor’ thing and continue to downplay the effect and blame past government for this current energy crisis,” he blurted.
According to the MP, hairdressers, barbers, corn millers, auto electricians, cold store operators and many artisans who use electricity in their daily businesses, were seriously feeling the negative effect of the erratic power supply.
“Workers are being laid off by employers and the rippling effect of their redundancy on their dependants is very damaging,” the MP said, adding that as a responsible opposition, the NPP would lead a demonstration on Wednesday, February 18 to tell the government that Ghanaians are suffocating under this energy crisis and prompt it to do something urgently about the situation.
“Our demonstration on Wednesday is not about the NPP; it is about Ghanaians and we want all Ghanaians to join us to tell the government that enough is enough and that we cannot continue to take this bitter pill,” Mr Ayeh stressed.