"Make us cherish fearless honesty"! So goes a line in our wonderful national anthem. It invokes a sense of appreciation for those who stand up when times are hard to make a lasting impression on the body-politic, an impression that is born out of a resolve to improve the lives and well-being of the Ghanaian and making it possible for our pride to be manifested in all fields of human endeavour.
So what has induced this write up in these days that all sorts of aspirations, bad-mouthing and blatant amplification of negative vibes are dominant in socio-political discourse? Well it so happens that in the land of our birth called Ghana, the government and people have been saddled with a problem that places them in the proverbial crevice that separates a rock from a hard place. That crevice, dear reader is the age old problem of power generation.
Two years ago, the Accra Daily Mail begun a series of articles in a prophetic frenzy calculated at drawing the attention of government to the detrimental effects of a shortfall in power on business and the development programme of the country. At that time, there was of course power rationing of some sort, one that ensured that certain papers missed the news stands on the scheduled dates, for the area around Abeka La Paz was almost in a different league altogether, what with the unsystematic and unannounced "lights off" that became the norm rather than the exception? With that rationing exercise came the inevitable damage to household items including both electrical and electronic appliances and the like. As is the case in our dear motherland, the lord was merciful, the rains came, Wereko-Brobby got kicked to go grow a pot-belly at i-faith and the annual uneasy calm sent us back into forgetfulness.
We have come full circle once more, only that this time, Ghana is to showcase her 50 years of existence as a sovereign nation. Are we about to showcase our existence by behaving like the proverbial ostrich or display our warts and all? There are those who believe that it is politically incorrect to raise this issue at this given time, now that all eyes are focused on Ghana@50 and its concomitant celebrations. But can anybody imagine a situation in which at a state banquet for instance, the lights would suddenly go off when President Kufuor is responding to or proposing a toast in the presence of Thabo Mbeki and Hosni Mubarrak and all that's between those two? Better still, has anybody thought about the ramifications of President Abdoulaye Wade waking up in the palatial edifices at the Wireless Site to find that the lights are off and therefore his clothes cannot be straightened in time to honour an official invitation for an official function at the forecourt of the State House? What about the possibility of a dignitary's plane not being able to land or even have the privilege of being diverted to the Akuse Air strip because there are no runway lights and even if there are, the power is off as happened recently at the Kotoka International Airport? And what would be the explanation for the inability to use the expensive $70million Sony Equipment of GBC simply because there is no power at "location"?
Call this a pessimistic piece and you would not be wrong for I know my people, talkatives without restriction and major disappointers when it matters most. Lest anybody reads anything erroneous into this, it may be important to recall that exactly two years ago at the Annual People's Assembly held in Cape Coast, the lights went off in the middle of the President's presentation. These are not funny things, neither are we in funny times so that someone must continuously drum it into the minds of those whose duty it is to ensure the flow of power as we prepare to either present a beautiful spectacle or render a rendition of collective national disgrace the likes of which would make the newly lit streets of Kinshasa resemble paradise.
Although the above might serve as warnings, the reality is that we are in a lurch, a very worrying one indeed as nobody is prepared to call a spade by its name. The Akosombo Dam has come to the end of the road. That is the painful truth. Radical as this may appear, we must shut the dam down. In this day and age, almost every energy efficient country is striving for thermal or nuclear power to drive industry and development. Hydro power has become a relic, a decrepit old one at that which is not in the interest of any country especially one that is poised for a take off like Ghana. The Akosombo "deal" as it was structured with Kasier was to have a complete make over in the 1970s to reduce the size of the archaic turbines to make them more efficient. By dint of the 6 governments Ghana had between 1970 and 1980, this programme was shelved and with it, all our hope of prolonging the life of Akosombo by another 46 years.
Today, political economists would easily tell you that anytime any state takes its books to donors seeking for funds to refurbish a hydro dam, the first donor reaction would be "we can't support such a project that is sucking 2% of your GDP". It will indeed cost us something close to the $2billion reserves the NPP government has managed to save to preserve Akosombo and breath a new lease of life into it. The stark reality then is that it is not the fact that water is not running into the Volta Lake: we can commandeer all the water that Jehovah poured unto the earth in the days of Noah and we shall still have power cuts from the Dam. Our equipment is simply dead. That's the painful truth.
There are those who would be inclined to tout the Chinese provision of some $400million for the contruction of the Bui Dam. Admittedly, the political sound bites are enourmous but will that offset our energy shortfalls? Would the coming of the West African Gas Pipeline Project, widely suspected of being sabotaged by Great Power politics between France and the United States, be the rescuer of the abysmal situation? The time has come for Ghana to eject itself from the throes of self-deception and take the difficult but decisive option of turning to Thermal power as our source of power. It is indeed easier to raise funds for such a project from both our bilateral and multilateral partners or from the international capital markets where thanks to our B++ rating, Ghana remains in good standing for financial assistance and infusion of FDI. The longer we wait, the more our chances get slim, especially now that one is getting frightened about the shilly-shallying of our donor partners including the G8 regarding their release of funds under the HIPC initiative and the Millenium Challenge Account. Government must sit up, for the prognosis while not being good is perhaps the greatest challenge to the legacy the NPP would otherwise leave for its first 8 years in power. Ejection from the doldrums of power failures would involve taking those hard decisions we have been shelving for long. Perhaps, the President would have to meet his energy chiefs, take hard decisions and tell the nation the stark reality, even if the "leeches" at VRA would frown, gripe and hold him to ransom. At this stage, it is beyond preserving the jobs of a privileged few. It is a matter of life and death if Ghana is to remain the beacon of hope it once was instead of becoming the reference point of a disgraceful lot eager to please the world simply because it has staggered politically towards a number called 50.
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