Demo Hits Mahama In Germany

President John Mahama suffered another humiliation during his recent visit to Germany as some Ghanaian residents in the national capital, Berlin, decided to stage a demonstration against him last Tuesday.

The protestors, most of whom wielded placards which read, 'Drop your annoying Mahama,' 'Drop that yam,' 'NDC: National Distributors of Cocaine,' 'Stop cocaine trade in Ghana,' 'No German loan for NDC,' 'NDC: National Defenders of Corruption,' 'Where is Ghana's oil money?' 'Stop family and tribal politics,' expressed disappointment in the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

Even before the President arrived at the forecourt of the        Inter-Continental Berlin Hotel, the protestors were said to have gathered outside the facility amidst boos and jeers and chants of 'Mahama is a thief.'

The obviously irate Ghanaians were reportedly heard using megaphones and chanting, 'NDC cocaine party,' 'Dumsor dumsor, we need light,' among other utterances.

This was said to have caught the attention of passersby and occupants of the hotel.

But President Mahama was said to have been whisked away to avoid coming face-to-face with the protestors.

He later had an interaction with other Ghanaian residents as he briefed them about how his government was working to turn things around, especially the erratic power supply popularly called 'dumsor dumsor.'

 Energy Crisis
President Mahama has said he should be held responsible for the current energy crisis facing the country. 'I accept responsibility for it and I will work to resolve it,' he told Ghanaians.

Ghanaians have over the last three years been enduring long hours of power outages as a result of poor management of the power sector.

Thermal plants at Aboadze in the Western Region and Tema in Greater Accra Region are unable to produce at full capacity due to insufficient supply of gas from Nigeria.

The Akosombo hydroelectric dam is also not producing at full capacity because the government has not been able to supply adequate fuel to the Volta River Authority (VRA) to power its machines to generate enough power.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is therefore forced to shed about 600 megawatts, making life unpleasant for the people.

Addressing Ghanaians on Tuesday, the president said he was focused on resolving 'this problem once and permanently.'

According to the president, despite the energy challenge, 76% of the Ghanaian population has access to electricity. The target is to grow that figure to at least 80% in the coming years when ongoing projects were completed, which would add at least 5,000 megawatts to the current supply.

Mahama left Accra Saturday, January 17, 2015 for a state visit to Berlin.

He was accompanied by Foreign Minister, Hanna S. Tetteh; Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah; Education Minister, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman and Ghana's Ambassador to Germany, Akua Sena Dansua and the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress.

Mahama held discussions with the Federal President, Joachim Gauck and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel on Monday.

Charles Takyi-Boadu