The 2012 presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has blamed the country’s energy problems on greedy stakeholders working within the sector.
“The problem is greed. Remove the greed on the part of politically connected influence peddlers and their accomplices in government, and we will solve the energy problem. It is that simple,” he told a gathering in Accra on Monday.
He was delivering a public lecture on the economic crisis facing the nation, on the theme: “Solutions For Ghana: A Nation in Crisis.” The lecture, at the Banquet Hall of the Coconut Grove Regency, forms part of activities marking the second anniversary celebration of the Progressive People’s Party.
Battling with energy crisis
Ghana has been battling with energy crisis for about two years, resulting in load shedding to support the daily activities of citizens.
This has increased the cost of doing business in the country. President John Dramani Mahama has on numerous occasions promised that the crisis will soon be over, but the problem persists even though it has seen considerable improvement over the past weeks.
Solutions to energy crisis
But speaking at the lecture, Dr Nduom, also known as ‘Edwumawura’ or “Dr Fix It, disclosed that the solutions to the energy crisis were no hidden secret and neither was it “some technical thing that we don’t understand.”
He mentioned the likes of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr Ato Ahwoi, former Energy Minister, Kan Dapaah, himself and the current Energy Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, as people who knew specific ways to resolve the challenges.
“What needs to be done is known and it has been known for years,” he told the gathering.
According to Dr Nduom, “There were always people inside and outside administrations; they walk the halls of power not to deliver solutions but to find an easy way of making money .
He said such individuals “go there and they bother the ministers and the others who are there and in the end, they make it difficult for the government to start implementing the projects that we need.”
Net exporter of power
“Ghana is highly capable of being a net exporter of power and petroleum products as envisioned by the President,” Dr Nduom stated, saying, “I agree because I know the plans that are there.”
In his expectation, the President had to “fight these people and take control of the energy agenda.”
He pointed out that the President had all the powers and “must take control over the energy agenda, and I wish him well with this and that he must not allow himself to be pushed around.”
He also counselled the President to let Ghanaians know if his efforts to solve the energy crisis were being impeded and “we will all go there and help him push those people away.”
