Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has revealed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has not done anything extraordinary to end the power crisis in the country, popularly known as ‘dumsor’.
According to him, the government has in no way undertaken much endeavour to address issues within the power sector, as it was handled by the previous administration.
Mr Braimah indicated that government came in with the information that the previous government may have even invested in energy generating machinery that was not basically needed because the country had excess capacity. He stated that the issue about dumsor has been prolonged, although he would continue to say that in terms of dumsor, it was ended by the Mahama regime.
“I don’t think the NPP regime has done anything extraordinary to claim credit for ending dumsor. But as I said, they prefer to do gimmicks with the energy sector issues rather than really focusing on the issues…”
Sulemana Braimah
Nonetheless, Mr Braimah indicated that the current energy minister, Matthew Opoku, is someone he has confidence in, however he stated that sometimes it’s not about the minister but what comes from the top.
To this end, he expressed the need for government to allow him work to address the challenges in the country, “so that eventually, we don’t get ourselves into the situation that we are all praying to avoid”.
Commenting on the World Bank’s statement that the country needs emergency energy plan to address challenges within the sector, Mr Braimah stated that a lot must be done since the sector affects every aspect of the economy.
He explained that it appears that overtime, government has played rhetoric over the energy sector challenges and it’s not just previous governments but this government.
“I am not in that sector, and I have limited knowledge in the area. But I’ve been several occasions where I’ve been part of conversations involving persons that are experts in that area. If you listen to the analysis, you get scared about what the future holds. It does then appear that a lot of the problems that we have in terms of our economic indicators is because our energy sector is so much in debt.”
Sulemana Braimah
IGP Dampare commended on leadership in police service
Touching on the leaked audio which sought the removal of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dampare, the MFWA executive director revealed that there’s a lot to it as the IGP is doing the best he can. To this end, he noted that what the country need is an efficient police force that will give Ghanaians peace, order, security and stability.
“Yesterday, I was reading that the suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting incident that happened a few weeks ago that resulted in the killing of the police officer at the fuel station. I said to myself that was quite impressive, even one of the suspects was arrested in a community in Togo, because they had done a collaboration with Togolese Interpol.”
Sulemana Braimah
Also, Mr Braimah highlighted that he believes both the NDC, NPP and all Ghanaians must be interested in the leaked audio. As such, any attempt to undermine the IGP is worth investigating.
“So, we all believe that the current IGP is doing the best that he can to give us what we need… That is why I believe that all parties must be interested in this, but of course, do so without the needless partisanship or politics that sometimes is introduced.”
Sulemana Braimah
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