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The 2012 presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has once again counselled the current administration not to be in a hurry to declare victory over ‘dumsor’. 

“I have asked President Mahama and his people to be patient enough to understand the full scope of the power crisis - from generation to transmission to distribution to billing and collection of power supplied,” he indicated in a statement.

Political solution

“They wanted a political solution so they got one, an expensive generation solution and now they realise there is a billing and collection problem,” he pointed out.

According to Dr Nduom, instead of trying to understand this problem, actors in the current administration are  playing a dangerous blame game with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). 

The Majority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka, is reported in the media as accusing the ECG of undermining President John Mahama’s fight against dumsor.

“Did the Majority Chief Whip really accuse the ECG of undermining President John Mahama’s fight against dumsor?” Dr Nduom asked.

“So what do these people take Ghanaians for?  Was it not President Mahama who stood in Parliament, in front of the Majority Chief Whip, and promised that he would fix the dumsor problem?  And did the same President Mahama not go back to Parliament in the presence of this same Majority Chief Whip and declare victory over dumsor?  Is dumsor not supposed to be ...a thing of the past?" Dr nduom wondered.

Complaints

In his view, “When the businesspeople complained about the doubling and tripling of power bills, these politicians cried foul and were not sympathetic.  So when did this MP realise that there are some ECG power distribution, billing and collection problems to solve?  Is it because we are in an election year he now realises that ... in several cases, the cost of consumption has more than doubled and this has imposed undue hardship on virtually all Ghanaians, especially on the ordinary masses?” What about the businesses that pay tax and employ the ordinary masses?

“This administration must stop playing politics with the power crisis.  We should ask when the government will pay what it owes the ECG to give it breathing room to apply good management methods and systems.  And the Power Ministry must closely monitor and supervise this sector very well. No cheap political blame games here,’’ he concluded in the statement.