It seemed we were getting used to the darkness and heat, the two brothers that accompany the power cuts. At least on many occasions we could predict their arrival and condition ourselves for the inconvenience.
Then came the Christmas and New Year bonanza, the last week of 2014 and the first week of 2015, when we enjoyed an unprecedented uninterrupted power supply in about four years. We were told it was a special intervention by the President to make sure we enjoyed the last days of the previous year and the first few days of the new one.
How we wished it lasted forever! The children could watch their favourite TV programmes while those who were more academically inclined could read their books and do their studies under bright electric lights.
For us the adults, we could afford the luxury of inviting friends and relatives without the fear of embarrassingly plunging them into darkness when the excitement was at its peak.
Most industrial establishments had granted their workers Christmas and New Year holidays, but the shops and recreational joints were in active service and we were all happy. That was how life should be and for that brief period, we were part of the civilised community.
The question is, how was that magic performed but which we could not do earlier or sustained beyond those two weeks? If our generating plants could manage the pressure for the two weeks that the whole nation was on electricity, why couldn't they cope with the same pressure earlier and beyond the two weeks?
If the problem was lack of funds, as was being alleged, to import crude or gas to fire the thermal plants, how come we surmounted that problem in those two weeks?
In any case the honeymoon is over and the darkness and heat have returned this time with greater venom. If at first we could predict their arrival, this time they are elusive and could come and go anytime without notice. At first we were experiencing the power cuts between six and 12 hours.
Now the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the domestic power distributor, has informed customers that for every 12 hours of power, there would be 24 hours of no power. That is for those who may be lucky. Areas that have transformer and other technical challenges may even suffer more.
While we are brooding over what by all definitions is a national calamity, the new Minister of Power has come out with this strange pledge or promise that he will resign if by December this year the power situation has not improved.
One may ask, what do we gain as a nation, if after enduring another long year of no electricity, one person in government decides to vacate his post after enjoying his salary, allowances, privileges and other undefined incomes?
Can we go back to relive our lives which were messed up during the period? Can we give workers who might have lost their jobs as a result of the energy crisis back pay for income lost? What about those who in extreme cases lost their lives during those critical moments when what could make a difference between life and death was electricity or no the lack of it?
Mr Kwabena Donkor may sound daring in his pledge. The question again is, what would he have lost? Would he refund his salaries, allowances and those other incomes that may not have passed through the Accountant General's Department to the state? Would he want to be held responsible for the losses in material and human lives as a result of his failure?
Maybe his bravado is being fuelled by the fact that public office holders seldom resign from office in this part of the world and so his would be an achievement. Other than that we are better off without such boastful pledges and only look forward to adequate power supply to make our stay in this dear country of ours meaningful.
Poor EGG. The domestic power distributor has its own credibility problems and technical challenges to contend with. But it appears the company is more in the firing line than its other counterparts in the power generation, transmission and distribution chain.
Call it misdirected aggression, but it appears many Ghanaians do not know that EGG only distributes power that is made available to it and continue to blame the company for the current energy crisis.
While EGG is taking all the flaks, the other culprits and the real villains are looking on nonchalantly or at best making loud noises.
I believe if they ask Ghanaians to choose between light and darkness, majority, if not all, will go for the former no matter the price that goes with that choice.
