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The opposition NPP in their usual fashion has again made a blatant attempt to take the shine out of President Mahama’s recently most impressive State of the Nation address.

They sought to make nonsense of the Presidential address by presenting to the Press their own version of it on Tuesday to the extent that they accused the President of parading falsehood to Ghanaians. Hence their choice of the phrase “True State of the Nation Address” supposing that the President’s version wasn’t the truth but theirs was.

Going through the full text as presented by the Minority Leader in Parliament, one can see clearly the usual NPP tactics of intimidation of a political opponent and working of mischief in trying to pitch the President against former Presidents Rawlings and Kuffuor
The Ga’s have a wise saying that “if your rival’s daughter is beautiful simply admit it as it wouldn’t kill you “ to wit, if your opponent has a plus just give it to him but if you try to deny him of it fair minded observers would easily identify you as a liar and mischievous person.

The NPP in their vile attempt to discredit President Mahama and deny him any credit at all, also refused to admit that the Bui Dam project was an initiative of the arch rival of their political forefathers, the late Osagyfo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

They rather decided to lie to Ghanaians that it was the initiative of the NPP just as they have been lying to least suspecting Ghanaians that it was not even Nkrumah who started the Akosombo Dam but the US. “Kufuor initiated the 400MW Bui Hydro-electric Power Plant”. A big lie there.

As far as the Danquah-Busia/UP/NPP political tradition is concerned, President Nkrumah didn’t have a single good thing to his credit except that he was a notorious dictator and reckless manager of a lot of money the colonial British left for Ghana upon handing over power to the CPP in 1956.

These they still up till date ascribe to Ghana’s economic woes but have recently now turned their guns on President Mahama and blame him for everything in this country even if there is no justification for doing so.

Amazingly, the Minority leader was also silent on the issue of millions of dollars their government paid to Balkan Energy and American company for carrying out maintenance work on the Akosombo barges but the work was never done.

Hon.Mensah Bonsu must tell Ghanaians what efforts their government made towards retrieving the money from the non performing company since they are always making loud noises about corruption and stealing of state money under President Mahama’s administration.

HISTORICAL ANTICIDENTS OF BUI DAM PROJECT

The visionary leader and one of Africa’s most illustrious sons, the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who understood the importance of electricity to national and industrial development initiated a feasibility study into the supply of electricity for commercial and domestic use. The result(s) of this feasibility study was the construction of the Akosombo Dam and the framework for the subsequent development of the Bui Dam.

The purpose of the Akosombo Dam was twofold. First its construction was to aid in Ghana's rapid industrial development by providing energy to the numerous factories that were being built. Secondly it was to supply electricity to Ghana's growing population and also as an income generator by exporting electricity to other West African states to help in their development.

In January 1966, the Akosombo Dam was officially inaugurated by President Kwame Nkrumah meeting both commercial and domestic needs. Indeed, the Akosombo Dam generated much power than Ghana needed at the time and the country therefore became a net exporter of electricity to other West African states.

The Akosombo Dam was constructed in such a way that the only way power outages could occur would be if the huge barges that powered the dam were not properly maintained. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had the great ability to plan ahead. As such he recognized that industrial development would continue to expand and that the nation's population would also continue to grow.

This implied that the Akosombo Dam alone would NOT be sufficient enough to meet the future energy demands of the nation. This was the primary reason for laying down the framework for the development and subsequent construction of the Bui Dam.

The peaceful use of nuclear energy was yet another vital project that could generate further energy and would have made the country self-sufficient in power generation.

“In 1961 I caused the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission to be established to guide and direct this enterprise. Our Atomic Energy Commission now operates in close relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Only recently the Director and the Deputy Director of the Agency visited Ghana, and commented favourably on the breadth of vision of our plans.

“We believe that the amount of energy which can be generated in Ghana can play a decisive role in the development of our industry, agriculture, health and other services. Certainly, the foundations for the effective and rapid industrialization of our country must rest on the provision of cheap and abundant power” the Osagyefo intimated in a speech during the laying of the foundation stone of Ghana’s atomic reactor at Kwabenya on 25th November, 1964

THE 1966 MILITARY DISASTER

The Bui Dam was in the process of taking off just as the nuclear reactor was scheduled for commissioning in 1966 and then came the coup that toppled the CPP regime. The Military regime didn’t see reason to continue with the Bui Dam, Atomic energy project, Tarkwa Commercial Gold refinery, Tamale International Airport among other projects of prime importance to the country’s economic development.
In the sick mindset and reasoning of the Military leaders supported by UP elements, once they were started by Nkrumah they were equally as “evil” as him and must be abandoned.

The question is, if Nkrumah was really the demon as they want to have Ghanaians believe, and had therefore to be done away with, why did the numerous projects that he initiated and were important for national development also had to be abandoned?

Throwing the bath water plus the baby out because the baby is bad? The water could have been reserved for the other “good” baby. This was personal hatred against the Osagyefo that was pursued to unreasonable extremities. The abandoning of the Bui Dam and Nkrumah’s peaceful use of nuclear power projects is the bane of Ghana’s current energy deficit for which the NPP is shamelessly blaming President Mahama just to score cheap political points.

NPP RESURRECTS BUI DAM ALBEIT, FIFTY YEARS LATE

What the NPP did in 2006/7 was simply a resurrection of the Bui Dam for which they deserve some credit if for nothing at all but for reviving what their political forefathers had caused to be abandoned totally albeit, fifty years down the lane. Better late than never it has been said of old.

The NPP must however spare Ghanaians of the lie that the Bui Dam project was their own initiative as not all Ghanaians are ignorant of the truth. It ought to have simply given the late President credit as the initiator and foundation layer but knowing them for what they are, they wouldn’t do so. Apart from themselves they don’t see anything good in any other person. So even if it would mean lying about a matter to deny an opponent of a credit he deserves they don’t mind doing so.


CREDIT TO DR. S. B ARTHUR
The Bui Dam project story cannot be fully be told without mentioning this gallant one great son of the nation. That is, President Nkrumah’s pal, Dr. S. B. Arthur who is one of Ghana’s brilliant and Africa’s best hydro power engineers. He deserves a good amount of credit. Russian hydropower engineers after an initial study came out with 260 megawatts for the Bui Dam project.

But Dr. Arthur a son of the land, who knew the country better than his Russian counterparts and was technically as competent as them if not better, disputed the figure. After his independent study he came out with the 400 megawatts which he also defended in his PHD thesis in hydropower engineering in Russia. A later independent study by a French hydro power engineering company corroborated Dr. Arthur’s 400 megawatts and that is how come we have that figure today.

Dr. Arthur now in his seventies is still alive and was honoured by the Pan African monthly publication, the African Development magazine in Accra last year during its annual awards ceremony.

The NPP must learn to accept the universal law of |”do onto others what you want others do onto you|” and avoid the law of the funnel. This idea of a counter State of the Nation address by the Minority after a sitting President has delivered his is nothing but misguided arrogance and lawlessness all in the name of democracy or better put, demo crazy