Former President John Mahama, and the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has urged the government to openly acknowledge the existence of ‘dumsor’ (power outages) and provide a clear schedule for load shedding in response to recent power disruptions in various parts of the country.
Addressing a gathering in Sissala West during his “Building the Ghana We Want” Tour in the Upper West region, Mahama emphasized that Ghanaians are well aware of the ongoing power challenges and simply require a transparent timetable for load shedding.
Drawing on his experience as a former president, Mahama highlighted his commitment to keeping the public informed about challenges and the measures taken to address them. However, he expressed concern that the current administration has not been as forthcoming in addressing the power issues.
During his speech, Mahama highlighted the importance of honesty in leadership, stating, “When I was president, if things were not going well, I told the people of Ghana things are not going well and this is what we are trying to do about it. I think my honesty was one of my major problems because I didn’t think I should fool my people.”
“Today, every day you sleep and the lights go off, and we know that they are shedding load. They have a problem with generation. Some generation assets are down. They have a problem with paying for gas.”
“They have a problem with paying for fuel, so every day they are shedding between 280 and 480 megawatts of power but they will not give us a timetable and say you will be off today, this one will be off tomorrow because that is what Ghanaians know as dumsor.”
Mahama concluded by emphasizing the need for transparency and the release of a well-defined load-shedding timetable to keep the public informed about the power situation.