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Toying with power supply

“There comes a time in a man’s life when he must prefer a meaningful death to a meaningless life.”

This statement, made by Benino Acquino, then the leading opposition leader of the Philippines during the tyrannical regime of Ferdinand Marcos, which is of contemporary relevance, has more often than not shaped my opinion on world events as well as local happenings.
In West Africa, for instance, a major gas pipeline serving Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana has collapsed since August 28, 2012, leading to an extensive disruption in industrial and domestic activities in Ghana. But the approach by sub-regional leaders in resolving the problem leaves much to be desired.

Even though our sub-regional leaders appear to demonstrate some level of commitment in their joint determination to have the problem resolved, given the time lapse and the continuous dislocation associated with the accident, which occurred at the Lome segment of the pipeline, their best has not helped in ameliorating the situation.

Fact is that even though the Managing Director of the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO), Charles Adeniji, has, on record, given an assurance last September to the effect that WAPCO was scheduled to resume its operations before December 25, 2012, a solution to the problem has remained a mirage with ever-increasing consequences for Ghana in particular.

And the question that readily comes to mind is whether the sub-regional leaders in general,  and our leader in particular, treated the gas pipeline problem with the seriousness that it deserves.

Again, how many of the four countries that jointly own WAPCO are worst hit by the crisis? Is the regular supply of industrial gas not a major prerequisite for ensuring sustainable power supply in Ghana? Is Nigeria in any way affected by the shutdown?

Dear readers, are you comfortable with this lackadaisical approach to resolving a major problem that affects industrial growth in the sub-region and the well-being of the citizenry?

Will this ever happen in Europe where the supply of gas is equally essential for industrial and domestic activities, more especially during the winter season, just as in Ghana where the product is essential for power generation?

Nobody needs to be reminded of the hellish and chaotic situation that this country has been plunged into since last August when the disruption began, and for how long can we endure this as a nation?

Reflecting on what is happening to Ghana as a result of the shutdown of gas supply from WAPCO, reminds this writer of an incident that happened in 1980 when he was a young reporter in Bolgatanga. It so happened that there was a breakdown at the main transmission station of the Ghana Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, now Vodafone Ghana.

For starters, Walewale is about 112km from Tamale, the regional capital, and 50km from Bolgatanga, capital of the then Upper Region. The Upper Regional office felt it was the responsibility of the Northern Regional office to fix the problem at Walewale.  

Unfortunately, the Tamale office also thought notwithstanding that fact, it made business and economic sense for the Upper Region to undertake the repairs proximity-wise.

The truth was that for the period that the Walewale problem persisted there was complete breakdown in telecommunications network between the Upper Region and the rest of the country. The Northern Region did not have such difficulty.

It took a publication in the Daily Graphic by this writer on the issue before the head office in Accra intervened. I wonder whether or not it would have taken this long if Almighty Nigeria was affected by the problem like it is happening to Ghana.

While condemning the way and manner in which the whole issue of restoring gas supply from Nigeria has been handled, this writer is equally alarmed at what has happened with the entire power rationing by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Apart from the injustice that characterised the earlier scheduled outages which were given extensive coverage, both in the print and electronic media, which served as adequate notifications to customers, currently ongoing is another form of power rationing.

This time around, consumers do not know when their electricity supply is scheduled to go off and when it does unceremoniously at 6p.m., power is not restored until the following day. This shabby treatment of customers by the ECG is, to say the least, highly unfortunate.

There is an absolute lack of transparency in ECG’s latest round of power rationing following its piecemeal approach to publicity on the exercise. Otherwise, why is the company refusing to advertise the programme in the print media?

Fact is that, apart from the present arrangement being subjective and, therefore, prone to abuse, it does not augur well for good customer-service provider relationship. To say the least, customers of ECG deserve better than what they are being subjected to now, more especially at this time when a number of them are pre-financing the service through the use of pre-paid meters.

Again, is it fair for a customer wishing to report a power outage in his area, or electric wires which had fallen off from the pylons or damaged cables, to   pay for the cost of the telephone call?

Time and again, this writer has complained bitterly about the fact that the ECG has refused stubbornly to heed to advice that its call centre – 0302 611611 – must be made toll free, but this has been treated with the contempt that the ECG thinks it deserves, to the extent that every customer who calls to complain or to provide information on the services being provided, bears the cost.

This does not happen in any vibrant society where customer service is held in high esteem but in our circumstance, perhaps as a result of monopoly, it is as if the ECG is telling everybody that, TO HELL WITH YOU!  Ghanaians are not docile and domesticated as the ECG would want the world to believe.

Indeed, Benino Aquino’s time-tested statement, which admonishes the human race to uphold virtues of living responsibly, cannot be over-emphasised. As it is, we need to choose between having to live a meaningless life and a meaningful death. And I hope the authorities of the ECG are listening to the clarion call by its numerous customers that they deserve better now, monopoly or no monopoly.

PS.  Just when this article was about to be published,   the ECG came out with yet another of its load-shedding time tables, which again has been exposed as a hollow sham. Places such as Sakumono (Friday, May   31 2013) and Darkuman Nyamekye (Saturday, June 1 2013), had their lights out in the night even though on the ECG`s   so-called Load  Shedding   Guide, these   places  were  supposed to have lights.  The ECG should  be the first to know that it is just wasting money on these advert spaces.

Article by Albert Sam

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