The claim by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it ended the power crisis, known in local parlance as ‘dumsor’ before it exited office, has been challenged.
Aide to Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Gideon Boako cited how the NDC’s National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo lamented on radio about his government’s inability to end ‘dumsor’ because they were voted out of power to buttress his point.
Based on this and many others, he said in a statement that it beats reasonable thinking for the NDC to suggest that it ended ‘dumsor’ before living office.
Below is the full statement by Dr Boako:
Dr Gideon Boako writes:
This is evidence that the NDC did not end ‘dumsor’ before leaving office
So I have listened to another failed attempt by the NDC to throw shade at government after they failed to respond constructively to the challenge thrown by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
This time around they made reference to a 2nd March 2016 comment by Dr. Bawumia that ‘Mahama cannot take credit for ending dumsor’. Their aim was to suggest that the NDC ended dumsor before exiting power.
For the avoidance of doubt and clarity, Dr. Bawumia made that statement after Mr. Mahama who was President of the country had delivered a State of the Nation Address in Parliament on 25th February, 2016 and ridden on the ephemeral stability in the power sector to suggest that dumsor was over.
But guess what happened in April and beyond after Dr. Bawumia had made that statement on the back of Mr. Mahama’s claim.
First, reference could be made to a report on 30th June 2016 on Graphic online by Daniel K. Kenu under the headline: “We are not out of dumsor yet – President Mahama”.
The body of the story was attributed to Mr. Mahama when he met the Council of Christian Churches in Kumasi as part of his ‘Accounting to the People Tour’. Here he blamed the prolonged dumsor on the non-supply of gas from neighboring Nigeria to feed thermal plants as a result of sabotage which had led to the shutdown of the Asogli power plant.
Second, a Citinewsroom story filed on 22 July, 2016 quoted Mr. Samuel Tetteh Agbetor, Chairman of the Western Regional Workers’ Union of ECG as having said President Mahama was sitting on dumsor timetable. The story was headlined “Mahama sitting on dumsor timetable – ECG workers”.
Third, to show that dumsor was still existing even at the time this government came to power in 2017, I’ll refer you to a Ghanaweb story gleaned from Peace FM on 2nd March 2017 that quotes Mr. Ofosu Ampofo, then Director of Elections of the NDC and now their National Chairman. The story was headlined: “Mahama would have ended dumsor if NDC was retained” – Ofosu Ampofo.
Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said this when he appeared on the popular Peace FM ‘Kokrokoo Show’ hosted by the venerable Kwame Sefa Kayi. On that fateful day Mr Ampofo was quoted to have said that “former President Mahama would have ended the dumsor crisis confronting the economy if Ghanaians hadn’t voted his government out of power”.
So clearly, on account of these and many others, including the living testimonies of Ghanaians who know pretty much that dumsor was still persisting at the time Mr Mahama and the NDC exited, it beats reasonable thinking for the NDC to suggest that they ended dumsor on account of a statement Dr. Bawumia made in March 2016 when in actual sense there are statements made by senior members of the NDC, Mr. Mahama inclusive, to suggest that dumsor was there even after Dr. Bawumia’s statement.
Once again, this is propaganda yaamutu. NDC never ended dumsor. They should look out for the next propaganda.
