The Minority caucus in Parliament has expressed shock at the apparent silence of Energy Minister, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, amid the ongoing power crisis in the country.
The crisis which began late last year has persisted yet the government has not provided a comprehensive explanation for the outages.
Speaking to JoyNews, the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee, John Jinapor said that apart from the Energy Minister asking complaining Ghanaians demanding a load-shedding timetable to produce one of their own, there have been no concrete measures from the Energy Ministry to mitigate the power disruptions.
“I thought that by now, the Ministry of Energy should engage Ghanaians, tell us the real problem, the challenges we are facing, its consequences and the steps being taken to deal with the challenge,” he remarked.
Mr Jinapor found the Energy Ministry’s complete silence on the matter very strange, observing that both the President and the Vice President have remained silent on the issue.
“The President who swore an oath to serve the people is comfortable with that. The vice president, who is seeking to be president and currently head of the management team, cannot show leadership, that managing the economy is also about providing reliable supply of power, and that he is the head of the current management team and that you should demonstrate leadership so Ghanaians may even see that this man is capable of managing the economy. He’s also gone mute, he hasn’t shown any leadership,” he said.
“We need fuel. This is the critical moment where he must demonstrate his economic prowess and intellectual capability. This is what we call leadership,” he added.
The Yapei Kusawgu Constituency MP contended that the government’s stance is disappointing and cautioned that any attempt to procure the much-needed fuel without parliamentary approval will be resisted.
“But I strongly object to a situation where they would go and buy fuel on credit just to hold the election and pile up the debt. So let me send a signal to all these countries, foreign entities that first of all, if you are entering into an international transaction, then under the Constitution, 181, you need parliamentary approval.
“Secondly, if you do not follow the procurement processes and ensure that you get the necessary approvals, and you move into a haste and conclude fuel supplies with the government outside the known rules and regulations, when President Mahama assumes office, we will not honour that,” he warned.
Mr Jinapor reiterated that the Minority will not condone any illegality, breach, or attempt by the government to resort to unorthodox measures to sustain the system through “palliative measures” solely for the sake of elections, which would only accumulate debt for the National Democratic Congress flagbearer to settle.
Source: myjoyonline.com
