The level of the intransigence of President Mahama and his government that surpasses imagination has once more been deepened. Their reprehensible "yen ntie obiaa" attitude has been apparently intensified following the "dumsor" demo organised in Accra. The demo is being replicated in other parts of the country.
As usual, permit me to define the word DEMONSTRATION (informal demo). Among its many meanings, it can be defined as "an occasion when a group of people march or stand together to show that they disagree with or support something or someone". This is exactly what many reasonable persons have opted to do to signal to the most corrupt and the most incompetent government Ghana ever has, that they can no longer cope with the hardships of the killer power outages and shortages ("dumsor") brought to bear upon them.
Demonstration is any citizen's civic right to express their grievances after all other means of peaceful communications directed at resolving an issue or an impasse have broken down. It is a powerful weapon to wield in the civilized democratic world. However, in Ghana, it is mocked by the clueless, but mostly incompetent and callous President, his government and political NDC party. They are obstinate to the point of refusing or forgetting to note that power lies in the hands of the people or the populace.
The President and his government Ministers including other numerous NDC members have come out to say, "The dumsor demonstrations are meaningless because they will achieve nothing. The demonstrations will not add a single unit of ampere, electric current, volt or whatever you want to call it, to the power generation and distribution to resolve that problem of "dumsor" the demonstrators are keen about, they say. This is the highest level of nonchalance, wickedness, cluelessness and incompetence that the Mahama government can exhibit.
In the part of the civilized world where I live, demonstrations have made positive impact on government, organizations and employers' decision making processes. They ponder over the reasons why the people went on demonstration or protested in the first place, then decide what they can do to better the conditions of service etc. It is always in the mutual interest of those protesting and those being protested against to find solutions to the problems protested about.
However, in Ghana, and under the administration of President Mahama, he, his government and party members rather tease those that embark on demonstrations even for absolutely necessary or genuine reasons.
Any sensible Ghanaian knows the negative impact of the "dumsor" on the entire Ghanaian economy and the populace at large. The incessant power outages have adverse effects on most individual Ghanaians in one way or the other yet; the Mahama government is making a joke of the situation. While President Mahama teases his predecessors for having only managed the situation of "dumsor", he is rather going to fix it, he says sarcastically. Nonetheless, we continue to experience the worst form of "dumsor", not even power rationing, under his completely clueless and unprecedentedly corrupt government.
President Mahama's Energy Minister, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah says all those that attended the recent "Dumsor" demonstration had only gone out to do some exercise which indeed, was good for their health. As an Energy Minister, he had the guts to postulate as said, instead of feeling ashamed of his mismanagement of the situation. Additionally, the Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo, has said, "Government cannot do magic now to address the energy crisis, it has already outlined measures it's taking to address the situation. So even if you demonstrate a million times, the situation cannot be eased immediately, you have to still wait for the Government programme," He went further to say, "the recently held protest over the 'dumsor, dumsor' was needless because the move did not bring any changes to the situation".
I will not comment any further on these persons in government. I leave it to all discerning and concerned Ghanaians to express their views on their behaviour. Least do these Ministers realise that the "Dumsor", "yabre" etc. demos can have palpable impact on mainstream politics.
Truly, Ghana has people lacking farsightedness, intelligence and wisdom, at the helm of its affairs. What a pity! They cannot, until today, comprehend the seriousness of the "dum, dum, dumsor" on Ghanaians and the nation's economy in general. What a bunch of square pegs wobbling-dangling in round holes, one may say.
Rockson Adofo