MAHAMA HAS DONE WELL PUTTING GHANA IN DUMSOR, LET'S BE FAIR

A leader can never be a perfect. Most leaders do well in certain respects and fail in other respects. We may never all agree even on one area the leader has done well or has not done well. It all depends on who and the criteria for assessment. For some people, a political leader has not done well except he has given them an appointment, a contract or put money in their individual pockets. A leader can kill himself, but as far as they have received no personal benefit he is no good. For some others, a political leader can only do well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from their Political Party. 

For those, the leader can chop off penis of a man; they will ignore and still commend him because of their narrow and myopic prism of assessment. Of course such assessment can be very biased and injurious. Nevertheless they are entitled to their assessment criterion.  And yet for the enlightened others, they use specific and objective criteria to assess leadership performance. There may be some coloration and nuances, but that's because they are human. And that's why I am not really surprised by the recent comments on the economy raised by Dr. Mahamud Bawumia and a couple of other distinguished Ghanaians. 

On this score, I endorse and underscore Felix Kwakye’s invectives on the opposition’s running mate and call for a debate. That to me is the civilized way to conduct a discourse or argument with the objective of presenting the facts, the figures and insights, demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do not subscribe to name calling or demonizing of Professionals or fellow Ghanaians just because our views do not agree. Not all Ghanaians are gullible. Many have brains that work, processing all the information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and throwing the rest into the garbage.  In my few years of Social Justice Advocacy, I have been schooled by Professors, Engineers and electricity agents on what shows good dumsor Management and Bad dumsor Management from the Public Sector Perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to justify my conviction that when it comes to the Dumsor John Dramani Mahama his Excellency has done excel, better than many. 

DUMSOR GROWTH In the years that John Mahama has been President, our dumsor has grown from 3hours erratic supply per day in 2012 to 24 hours darkness and 12 hours light. This is one of the highest growth rates in the World, bettered by Ghana. This is the compounded growth rate that has driven us to become the Largest Dumsor Country in Africa and the 1st in the World. If this is not a consequence of good dumsor management, please tell me what is. Even if it happened by 'luck', we must still give the credit to John Mahama's Government. Because if the reverse were the case and the lights were in stagnation as we had many years ago, we will still have blamed it on his poor dumsor management. If a man can take the flak for failure, why must we deny him the right to take the credit for success? Presidents before him did all they could to plunge the nation into complete darkness, but could not realized same before their exit.

DIVERSIFICATION DUMSOR: For 'X' years, where 'X' is not less than 10 years, we had complained that we had a mono generation where water was everything. But we were "shocked" to see that we now have a fairly diversified generation, led by all mighty Akosombo, where water's contribution to electricity has declined to one turbine from six in the hey days! and that even Aboadze Themal had declined from its second in command to almost ‘bob no rank’ because of lack of gas from the west African gas pipes, which cost manufacturing has climbed from postpaid to prepaid and such services as Technocrats as may be determined. It is not yet dé javu as we still depended on crude oil, Gas and water for about 80% of National supply.If all this are not as a result of sound dumsor policies, some of which were started by himself as the then Vice President, then tell me what is. 

 

GENERATOR/PLANT STABILITY For the last four months has sustained ruining businesses that had created a stable income. For the first time in our lives as a nation, our production rate has dropped to Single digit. This was a feat previous Governments dreamt about but could never attain.

 This has happened, because Mamaha have decided not give free hand to the Professionals at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and those in the Ministries of Energy, Ministry of Power, Energy Commission, etc to run with needless interference of redeployment. Additionally, he involved the Communications Ministry and the National Democratic Congress Propaganda Team where they used real market and propaganda experience to balance academic energy suply theories. If this is not good dumsor management, please tell me what is. Some Presidents in some Countries have been voted out of office because they could not manage continuous dumsor! 

AVAILABILITY OF TRANSFORMERS, METERS AND CABLES it is easy to take things for granted when they are going well, but when they go wrong, we come to realize that certain things are more important than others. People can find time to make an issue of the increment in our accessories reserves, because we do not have plenty. 

To be sincere, Ghana has had an acute ECG accessories shortage. Thanks be to John Mahama and thanks be to a decline in importation. Iam personally surprised that after the recent devaluation of some meters, and some adjustment of some, the prices of ECG items in the market remain fairly expensive, keeping overall inflation much higher than I had predicted which indicates a lower proportion of locally produced ECG items. Does anybody remember 1990S, when we had to queue for ecg items and other necessities, including sockets and lump holders at ECG offices? 

The days of essential commodities (Essenco) and import licensing when many companies including my Grandpa’s downsized or closed down because they could not bribe to get enough import license.   

I am sure Ghanaians have taken for granted the unavailability of Petrol and diesel. In the last couple of years, except for occasional inflows caused by private importers, we have had almost hassle -free unavailability of Petrol and Diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the Ghana selling at controlled and unregulated prices, depending on your distance from Accra, Kumasi or Takoradi. What is more, the price of fuel began to go up, helping to reduce the cost of production for Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). 

INCREASING UNEMPLOYMENT:   The growing employment hit t the peak in 2011 per Ablakwah declaration although ET Mensah did not put any currency on it. Today, in 2015 unemployment rate in the general population is nearer to the brim. As at today overall unemployment has galloped to more than 60%. 

Like it or not, the Generator Repairs Industry is coming back to life with the new National Generator Policy which seeks to encourage importation of all kinds of Gensets from all over the World. Many of the World auto companies have started to invest in production plants. 

This industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many Industries which hitherto had been practically impossible. Now Ghanaian companies can compete with International and Multinational companies for global supplies. 

The level of Policy inconsistency and flip-flops we have been subjected to see in dumsor in the past has significantly taught as not to follow sheepishly. In growing, we must look out those who are ready to create more confidence and attracting more investments into the Country with Ghana receiving the highest.

I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the massive investment in training and fueling ‘fisherman’ Energy Commission member Allotey. The impact of good policies and other modes of Allotey’s commission to any dumsor are too obvious for any further elaboration. Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the dumsor or that Dramani John is clueless, may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must acknowledge what is the correct situation. JM may have questions to answer concerning Economic mismanagement or on other issues but on Dumsor, my verdict is that he has done well, though he could do better by increasing the 24hours to 36hours by May. My bible says "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter ".