NDC, NPP: The snails of Africa

During my first time in Ghana (2012–2017), the sun was shining hot (solar energy?), the wind (wind turbines?) was blowing from Togo, and the waves (water turbines?) of the Gulf of Guinea carried ships around the world.

Instead, in 2015, a ship arrived in Ghana on the waves of the Gulf of Guinea from Turkey to ease the pressure of Dumsor Dumsor — light off, light on for days and sometimes weeks. The power shortage was foreseeable years before it occurred.

Under the NPP government of President Kufuor and the subsequent NDC government of President Mahama, they should have bought solar panels from China or built an assembly line in the country to give them out on a loan scheme to each and every household in the nation. The loan repayment would cover the same amount of cost each household has to pay for ECG monthly. The scheme could be made mandatory, saving energy, repair, and disruption loss by the transmission of energy to private households, using the national grid only for factories, offices, and as a transition means. A massive roll‑out over a period of a maximum of 8–10 years would have made Dumsor Dumsor a matter of the past. Using AI tools could have made the scheme very effective and limited corruption cases. At the same time, this scheme could have worked as a raw model for other African countries, transforming their economies and societies.

Instead of using sense and logic, Ghanaian political parties relied on personal contacts. The AKSA Files are out, and names emerge of politicians and government officials having taken bribes. What occurred under the NDC administration was not brought to justice under the NPP administration, facing criticism from various sides. Some argue that, as both parties have a hand in the scandal, therefore the high level of corruption in Ghana will not be seriously tackled. Others with a clearer vision realise both political parties are the snails of Africa. Snails are female and male creatures, changing sex according to the given situation when they meet each other.

I have seen in Ghana that people like to eat snails — large snails!