Dumsor defies solution―What sayest Thou, Mahama?

The never-ending national catastrophe of either intermittently descending into darkness during the night or “ceasing and desisting” from all activities linked to or facilitated by electricity day or night has apparently defied solution.

The situation could be likened to the scenario of the bird which frightens the farm owner by refusing to take flight even in the face of a looming assault by the farmer. In A ŋ l ɔ or E ʋ e parlance, the scenario above is captured in an appellation which goes: ”Xemalɔdzo― Ebe yedo ŋɔdzi na agbletɔ!”

In truth, the intermittent power outages, which has bedeviled the Mahama administration actually ended before his National Democratic Congress (N.D.C.) administration was voted out of office in December 2016.

However, the ‘bird’ returned to the farm, and defiantly resisted all efforts, if any at all, to drive it away.

So, for 8 years the intermittent power outages continued to traumatize Ghanaians, with the masses bearing the brunt of the crushing economic and social consequences.

Indeed, at a point, officials of the Akufo-Addo administration coined another terminology ‘dum sie sie’ to describe the persistent and worsening power outages.

Then came the second coming of John Dramani Mahama, who vowed to drive the ‘stubborn bird’ away with the introduction of a one Ghana cedi levy on a litre of petrol for use to settle the indebtedness to our power producers.

Although there is a semblance of power stabilization, the situation is far from satisfactory.

At a point, transformer replacement became the justification by the Electricity Company of Ghana for the power outages.

For Heaven’s sake, we have reached a point where the masses can no longer tolerate the anguish we have endured for almost a decade.

The most regrettable aspect of it is that the Very Very Important, Very Important and other important Persons and institutions do not share in the woes of the masses.

For, while, and as long as electric power remains unavailable, the corn miller’s job is lost and food is not on the table of the ordinary man; the barber’s shop is closed and he is deprived of his daily bread; the ordinary man sleeps in the heat, sweating all night and bitten by mosquitoes; the knife sharpener’s shop is closed and he is deprived of his daily bread; welders, tailors, dressmakers and other artisans lose their jobs and their clients are disappointed as their finished products are not delivered on schedule, likewise the key cutter who loses his job and disappoints his clients; communication centres and their services come to a halt, with the loss of daily bread and failure by parents to discharge their financial responsibilities towards their children and the home; the quality of teaching and learning in our educational institutions are equally compromised; health services are disrupted as computers become dysfunctional; banking services are disrupted; there is chaos on our roads as traffic lights become inoperable; our phones are rendered disabled as we cannot recharge them when the batteries become low, which renders communication inefficient with disastrous social, economic and health consequences; the cold stores and the refrigerators, and freezers in our homes are unable to be of any use; boredom sets in as our television and radio sets become mute; our lawyers and chamber work is negatively affected― and the list goes on. And the most painful part of it is that electricity tariff increments continue every now and then.

The position of the masses, therefore, is that this situation is unacceptable and we cannot afford to live with it any longer! Dumsor must end! A solution must be found! Now!

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