The founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has blamed the country’s energy problems on greedy stakeholders working within the sector.
“The problem is greed. Remove the greed on the part of politically connected influence peddlers and their accomplices in government and we will solve the energy problem. It is that simple,” he remarked.
Ghana has been battling with energy crisis for about two years resulting in the shedding of load to support the daily activities of citizens.
This has increased the cost of doing business in Ghana.
The President has on numerous occasions promised that the crisis will soon be over, but the problem still persists.
Speaking at a public lecture to mark the two years anniversary of the PPP, Dr. Nduom disclosed that the solutions to the energy crisis is no hidden secret and neither is it “some technical thing that we don’t understand.”
He mentioned the likes of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ato Ahwoi, former Energy Minister, Kan Dapaah, present Energy Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah as officials who know specific ways to resolve the challenges.
“What needs to be done is known and it has been known for years,” he stressed.
The PPP founder alleged that during his tenure as the Energy Minister, he observed that “there were always people inside and outside administrations, they walk the halls of power not to deliver solutions but to find an easy way of making money and not necessarily to offer solutions and they all congregate to energy.”
He said such individuals “go there and they bother the Ministers and the others who are there and in the end, they make it difficult for government to start implement the projects that we need.”
According to him, Ghana is highly capable of being a net exporter of power, petroleum products as envisioned by the President saying, “I agree because I know the plans that are there.”
Dr. Nduom seriously encouraged President Mahama to “fight these people and take control over the energy agenda because he is the highest.”
He pointed out that the President has all the powers and “must take control over the energy agenda, and I wish him well with this and that he must not allow himself to be pushed around.”
He counseled the President to let well meaning Ghanaians know if his efforts to solve the energy crisis are being impeded and “we will all go there and help him push those people away.”
