The opposition National Democratic Congress has washed its hands off the looming power crisis in the country claiming it bequeathed to Nana Akufo-Addo a robust, resilient power sector.
The former Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor said under no circumstance must the John Mahama led government be blamed for the power paralysis popularly called dumsor which is rearing its ugly head.
If anything, Mr Jinapor said the NPP must be blamed for the recent dumsor the country is going through because of its decision to do away with key heads of institutions in the energy sector.
He said the energy experts in the NDC are available to help the NPP.
Parts of the country are beginning to endure power outages, something that was a common phenomenon for over four years under the erstwhile NDC government.
The country was at some point subjected to a 24-hours-off-12-hours-on load management schedule which led to loss of lives, loss of jobs, collapse of businesses and a general slump in economic performance.
The situation however improved dramatically in the last quarter of 2016 shortly before the elections even though some energy think tanks, including ACEP predicted that dumsor will return in 2017.
The power situation became a key campaign issue with the then opposition New Patriotic Party accusing the John Mahama government of being incompetent.
The then vice presidential candidate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was convinced the challenge facing the energy sector was more a financial problem than technical.
Three months after the December election which saw a peaceful transition of government from the NDC to NPP, the power crisis appears to be returning.
Many residents are complaining of unannounced power outages and the discomfort it brings.
The president in his first state of the Nation Address to Parliament said the sector is indebted to the tune of $2.4 billion. But its immediate headache will be how to restore power at least on a regular basis.
The matter came up for discussion on the floor of Parliament, Tuesday, with John Jinapor insisting that the NDC cannot be blamed for the power crisis.
“I wish to state on authority and I am convinced that under no circumstance should dumsor revisit us. The prevalence of dumsor today cannot be attributed to the past administration. No in the least. no way. We took all the difficult decisions. The whole of last year we worked tirelessly,” he said.
“We are available to help them [NPP],” he suggested.
In an interview with Joy News’ Parliamentary correspondent, Mr Jinapor said the NDC government solved the power challenges before it left office on January 7, 2017.
“We bequeathed to the NPP a resilient, robust, strong energy sector. So there is no excuse, absolutely no excuse for us to go back to dumsor,” he stated.
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