The irony of John Mahama using ‘dumsor’ as a campaign subject

It is an amusing surprise to hear former President John Mahama, now aspiring president and flag-bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) criticize the incumbent government over the recent erratic cuts in power supply  commonly referred to as ‘dumsor’ and to even suggest what he believes are solutions to the challenge.

The physician who could not cure his own ailment is having the temerity to prescribe medication to a patient suffering from same ailment.

The former President, of all persons, should be the last to have the courage to accuse any government of having ‘dumsor’ challenges because when he was President, Ghana suffered a worse form of ‘dumsor’ for years and he was completely clueless on how to handle the challenge.

The only difference was that the Mahama ‘dumsor’ had a load shedding time table, while this Nana Addo ‘dumsor’ does not have one. Also the Mahama dumsor was for years while this one has been for months…and counting.

Ghanaians got frustrated with  President Mahama’s ‘dumsor’ to an extent that he was nicknamed ‘Mr. Dumsor’. He himself on countless occasions expressed his frustrations and attempted to explain the challenges while telling Ghanaians no one was be blamed for it.

During the IEA presidential debate in 2012, the then President John Mahama promised Ghanaians that ‘dumsor’ was going to be a thing of the past. After his promise, the situation worsened in 2013,  and in 2014. As at 2015, John Mahama was still promising Ghanaians the challenges would be solved “soon”. But here he is in 2024 saying he has solutions to solve ‘dumsor’

How come a former leader with such a horrible background in ‘dumsor’ mismanagement, suddenly claim he has better and superior ideas on how to solve it.

Both the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have bragged of solving ‘dumsor’. While the NDC claims the challenges were solved under John Mahama but the result was gradual and materialized just when the NPP took over government, the NPP on the other hand claims they brought in innovative ideas and solutions to solve the challenge when they took over from the NDC.

We call on former President Mahama to focus his campaign on other matters which the government he led clearly did better than this current one because anytime he talks about ‘dumsor’ his statements smack of hypocrisy.

It is more meaningful when President Mahama talks about the exchange rate and free fall of the Ghanaian currency, inflation, GDP and such matters but certainly not ‘dumsor.’

On May Day, President Nana Akufo-Addo told Ghanaians that ‘dumsor’ was over for good. That same night, several parts of the country suffered ‘dumsor’. Many areas have continued to suffer same even after the President’s declaration.

It is true, though, that there have been some significant improvements to the challenge but there is certainly more room for improvement and no amount of public relation antics can restore the several businesses that are collapsing as a result of the erratic power supply.

We hope the improved situation gets improved even further until the crisis gets solved once and for all… and solved permanently.