Last Thursday, the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Armah-Kofi Buah, reassured Ghanaians that very soon the planned load-shedding exercise would be over with the flow of gas through the West African Gas Pipeline to the Sunon Asogli Plant.
That piece of good news was, however, taken with a pinch of salt by some people because of the experiences they have had since the load shedding began last year.
The country started experiencing intermittent power outages from August last year when some pirates were alleged to have damaged some pipelines in the Atlantic Ocean near Lome.
The owners of the pipelines have given many assurances and timelines for repairing the damage, but those promises never materialised.
President John Mahama is on record to have assured Ghanaians on many occasions that the load-shedding exercise was going to be a thing of the past.
At the National Prayer and Thanksgiving Service in April this year, he assured Ghanaians that the outages would reduce considerably by the end of that month and asked the congregation to watch his lips. But here we are, in July, with the load shedding still persisting.
On a number of media platforms yesterday, the Daily Graphic was subjected to bad-mouthing by some commentators just because we took the professional decision to make the assurance from the Energy Minister that the gas would flow through the pipeline from next week our banner headline.
The Daily Graphic appreciates the critics’ apprehension because similar assurances in the past hit the rock.
We have not yet reached the stage where we would want to give up on our political leadership.
There may be challenges; there may be some failure on the part of government officials to deliver value to the people who have given them the mandate to govern.
As human beings, those officials suffer the frailties associated with human existence and we shall be happy if our politicians accept that reality and engage the people more in the day-to-day administration of the country.
At this stage, it would be important that our leaders restore hope in the people by making strenuous efforts to fix the challenges confronting the country.
The challenges are too many — in education, health, agriculture and the economy as a whole — creating a state of hopelessness among the people.
We have no reason to disbelieve the assurance given by the Energy Minister and Mr Kweku Awortwe, the Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority, that the flow of gas through the pipeline next week would help improve power generation in the country.
The Akans say, “Nea owo aka no pen no suro sonson” (literally meaning a person who bas been bitten by a snake before fears the earthworm).
It is also said that once bitten, twice shy.
These sayings explain why a section of Ghanaians are sceptical about the promises of politicians.
It was common in the days of yore to hear magicians plead with the sources of their powers not to put them to shame whenever they performed to conjure all manner of items in public.
In the same vein, the Daily Graphic appeals to the Energy Minister “not to put us to shame” by doing everything within his power to get the gas to flow through the pipelines of the West African Gas Pipeline Company.
We are not oblivious of the fact that the activities of that company lie outside the remit of the minister, but we believe he must have done the necessary homework before telling Ghanaians that gas would through the pipeline next week.
We have said it before, and we repeat it, that the problems in the energy sector require a collective effort to resolve.
If there is the need for an upward adjustment in tariffs to save the situation, let’s do it, but let’s make sure that those who manage the sector are purged of inertia, mismanagement and corruption, so that the energy sector can be made more effective and efficient to stimulate the economy.
We are told that sector is on the brink, but this critical and strategic sector cannot be allowed to collapse.
We need a new injection of ideas to revamp the energy sector.
