Mother Of Insensitivities

To ignore Ebo Barton-Odro's recent remarks on the power outage afflicting the country is to be supportive of his insensitivity to the woes of the business community and domestic consumers of electricity.

Why a man of his stature, a lawyer of many years standing and holding the position of deputy speaker in the legislature, would be so reckless to the point of stepping on the toes of most Ghanaians with such remarks is inscrutable.

We would have turned our backs on the regrettable effusion as we always do when unlettered persons who do not edit their thoughts before jumping on very serious national debacles abuse the sentiments of the people of this country, as it were, with silly rhetoric.

Not so when a highly placed person in the mould of a deputy speaker of parliament expresses himself in a manner which attracts a national opprobrium.

We felt ashamed when the fallouts from his expression went virile and somewhat reduced the esteem of the exalted position he is holding.

He took a risk and has by so doing lost the little deference he has left on his image, having earlier lost so much respect when he goofed in the judgment debt debacle. We would have expected him to be more circumspect on very volatile subjects as sensitive as the power outage.

To state as he did that those who fail to run their businesses well should stop blaming the power outages for their shortcomings is to show the greatest level of unconcern for the plight of the businesses which are running aground and throwing many into the unemployed market.

We do not know what his constituents would think about the man who represents them in Parliament.

Not even the president would be happy about such a remark from a highly placed person like        Barton-Odro. He effectively exposed his soft underbelly for aggrieved Ghanaians to jab it with all their might.

President John Mahama appreciates the challenges posed by the unreliable power supply, its negative footprints too glaring to be overlooked. He has not stopped talking about it, sometimes pleading with his compatriots to be patient with him as he seeks solution to the challenges.

When he went to Germany he virtually pleaded with Angela Merkel, the chancellor of that country, to come to the aid of the country (Ghana). If the deputy speaker would undo such interventions with obscene remarks such as the one under review, we can only assume that he does not care. Expressing remorse to Ghanaians would be an appropriate thing to do. Will he?