To demonstrate his willingness to end the ongoing power crisis a couple of months ago, Minister for Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor announced to all Ghanaians that he would abdicate his position if the current power crisis does not end by January 1, 2016.
He first offered to resign if the crisis does not end by the end of the year in an exclusive interview with Joy News’ Elton Brobbey, in February this year.
“At least the end of the year is December so you can hold me to that…Yes I will resign“, was his reply to Elton’s query whether Ghanaians would be justified in calling for his head if the situation persists by close of 2015.
Few months later, Dr Kwabena Donkor again reiterated his resolve to quit as the Power Minister, if the energy crisis persisted beyond this year.
At the inauguration of 3 different boards for Volta River Authority subsidiary companies including a real estate company, schools and health facilities in May, he vowed; “We would fix this problem, and I have indicated that come 1 January 2016 if there is still load shedding, I would not sit in this chair, I would have failed and I will sack myself before anyone sacks me.”
He added that government will stick by the announced timeline by President John Mahama to resolve the power crisis before the close of the year.
Subsequently, President John Dramani Mahama vowed to hold him (Dr Donkor) to his words over the promise to end the crisis by January 1.
“We will continue to increase the pwoer that is being fed into the system until the gap is eliminated completely by, according to my Power Minister’s promise, year’s end, for which I have put his neck on the block,” the president remarked in April.
But as Ghana’s power situation remains the same and with the year end approaching, Dr Donkor’s promise comes to play, especially in the wake of the erratic load-shedding programme being embarked by the ECG.
However, in a dramatic volte-face, the Power Minister has eaten back his words.
Infact, he sarcastically told Ash FM‘s Candy Owusu in an interview that any Ghanaian interested in knowing the exact date ‘dumsor’ would end, should direct all questions to President Mahama for answers.
According to him, he never promised Ghanaians ‘dumsor’ would end under his watch.
With news circulating that Nigeria Gas (N-Gas) has threatened to cut gas supply to Ghana if the Volta River Authority (VRA) fails to honour its debt obligations, Dr. Donkor, maintains he has no idea about the saga.
Asked why he as Sector Minister is unaware of the issue, a tetchy Dr Donkor, cheekily told the host who appeared to have gotten his skin that it would take “the unknown Ghanaians who bought gas from their Nigerian counterparts to tell the truth” about how that particular debt was incurred.
“Ask whoever has bought something from whoever you are talking about; I haven’t bought anything from anyone…if they supply Ghana Gas then you must ask Ghana Gas about it”, Dr Donkor fumed.
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(Nana Kwesi)