The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has called for the resignation of Power Minister Kwabena Donkor because he has failed to address the country’s energy crisis.
ACEP’s reaction comes in the wake of Dr. Donkor’s recent statement that he had scored 99 percent in his management of the country’s power problems.
Speaking to Joy Fm, Deputy Director and Head of Research at ACEP, Benjamin Boakye, noted that it would be good for Dr Donkor to resign because he was making mockery of himself.
“Resigning would be an honourable thing. If he doesn’t, it makes mockery of any future promises and pledges.”
Mr Boakye described the Power Minister’s comments as disappointing, adding that he had failed to improve the power situation.
“We only have Karpower added to the grid which he didn’t do anything about in the first place because Karpower was a done deal. If you look at what he has done, visiting project sites going to visit engineers and plants and moving around, that any desk officer at the Ministry of Energy could have done.
“By 31st December, he should be accounting for what he has delivered for which he thinks that he should stay,” Mr Boakye said.
Dr Donkor said in an interview during the radio station’s year-in-review show that barring any hitches Ghanaians should have uninterrupted power supply.
“If you set an exams and somebody gets 99 percent, is it not possible to say the person has done extremely well,” Dr. Donkor said.
Dr. Kwabena Donkor in May this year told the media not to wrongly convince Ghanaians that the planned importation of the two power barges would mainly provide a solution to the country’s power crisis.
He made this known during the inauguration of three different boards for the Volta River Authority’s subsidiary companies comprising a real estate company, schools and health facilities
“Let me kindly use this opportunity to inform the media that the fixation on only one solution is not doing the country any good, we are talking about a set of solutions. So the fixation on power badges which is only one element in the solution box does not convey the right message to the rest of the country,” Dr. Donkor stressed.
Dr. Donkor also pledged to resign his position on January 1, 2016 should the ongoing power crisis continue after 2015.
“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 stated.
Source: Daily Guide
