...and a “Free-for-All” In the Energy Sector - CPP

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, fellow Ghanaians, our response to the President’s recent address to Parliament and to the Nation is chiefly aimed at our Parliamentarians as they debate further the issues raised by the address. As participants in Ghana’s democracy, we are duty bound to comment and to contribute our thoughts on all the issues confronting our democracy and our nation today.

That the President’s address was largely delivered to a partisan audience in the house, should serve as a call to strengthen dialogue in our beloved country. Ours is a plural democracy – a system which demands consensus, and thus the government of the day must work hard at accommodating grievances that flow from the process of democracy.

The substance of the President’s address was in our view the basics of what every Ghanaian expects from its elected government – the use of taxes collected and loans contracted on its behalf used to run the affairs of state and to seek to push the frontiers of national development. On the main headings of the address we wish to comment specifically as follows:

Energy and Power The President rightly notes that there is a crisis with energy supplies to businesses, industry and households. He notes also that the first signs of an impending crisis appeared in the mid 1980’s. His link of the Government’s long term solution to the West African Gas Pipeline raises a number of questions: • Why has it taken the NPP government 6 years to initiate the measures that are now proposed? • What are the Gas Turbine projects mentioned by the President being undertaken by Public and Private Agencies and when is the completion date for these projects?

With regard to the medium term measures we note the following: • The President told the nation that the Volta River Authority’s (VRA) 126megawatt plant is due in August but failed to tell us when the VRA’s 300megawatt plant is due to come on line. • The President failed to tell the nation why the Osagyefo Power barge has been standing idle. • No dates were announced on the joint venture Ghanaian-Chinese company aiming to produce 600 megawatts of power. • No meaningful initiative on energy conservation in our homes, offices and society generally beyond appealing to society to be “economical in the use of electrical appliances”.

The President mentioned a number of measures his government has initiated to deal with the energy crisis but the overall effect of his comments is one of confusion with a free-for-all by anyone who wants to produce and supply power. Importantly the President did not touch on regulatory measures to deal with the myriad of companies and groupings now set to produce power in Ghana. A more damning view is that of a government that has simply failed to manage the energy crisis even at this 11th hour of the 50th anniversary year, when it has invited millions across the globe to visit our country

Economic Performance On the economy the President continued on the theme which has now become an NPP mantra - “macro economic stability”. But in a state of the nation address our view is that the President of the nation should be telling us if our population is less impoverished, i.e. whether poverty has been reduced, are people better off or are Ghanaians facing greater hardship. The President remained silent on the cost of the Cedi re-denomination exercise, an important factor in the necessity and viability of the exercise., considering the fact that the Cedi is due to be abandoned in favour of a common ECOWAS currency in less than 3 years. President Kufour repeated the NPP’s contested assertion that remittances from Ghanaians abroad was a sign of confidence rather than the view from many that they remit because of increased hardship faced by their relatives in Ghana.

Public Sector Reforms We welcome the government’s belated conversion to the need to strengthen the public sector. The Convention People’s Party had always maintained that the public sector needs incentives and not vilification.

Manpower Development The President did not and perhaps could not tell the nation the target figures for youth employment under the Youth Employment Programme or how many employment opportunities had been created so far under the scheme. After 6 years of government the President told the nation that his government is now in the process of preparing a National Employment Policy.

Social Services The President listed a number of projects extending water to the many parts of the country and again our view is that this is the basic of what the country expects from its governments. The President failed however to offer any explanation for the continuing long periods of water shortages and dried taps in many parts of the country and did not apologize to the nation for this failure to meet a basic necessity of life and the ongoing suffering by the population on this front.

Development of the Private Sector After six years of governing the NPP should drop the dogma on the private sector being the engine of growth because the reality many businesses in the private sector have collapsed and are collapsing. Ghanaian industry is shrinking and all the indications are that it is the public sector which is leading growth in the country.

Trade and Industry The President’s Special Initiative (PSI’s) has continued to fail while the President continues to add to government excuses for the failure... His assertion that “government is therefore taking the necessary steps to re-energize the PSI’s…… “Without spelling out the measures smacks of a lack of ideas.

Information and Communication Whilst the entire country would welcome a transformation of Ghanaian society into a technologically advance society and a growing expansion in telephone subscriptions, the country would like the Government to stop and pause before rushing with its plan to privatize Ghana Telecom and Westel, particularly if it knows that one foreign owned telecom company with approximately 1.2million Ghanaian customers that it charges approximately $20/month earns approximately $264million a year. Much of this income is transferred out of Ghana. Further privatization would thus lead to many billions of dollars being transferred out of the Ghanaian economy every year. Would it not be better that this income remains in Ghana and in Ghanaian hands?

National Identification System At a time when the country is facing crisis on many fronts not least in the energy sector the amount being spent on the National Identification System is once again a matter of mis-placed priorities with this government as is the case with the loan and expenditure of £30million on a presidential palace.

Good Governance Despite all that the President said about the need for participation in governance at all levels and the need for peace in traditional affairs. The missing ingredient in our view is the need for government to build confidence in our institutions of state. The Cocaine scandal has not helped on this front and the President’s mention of the “menace of drug pushing and trafficking” did not address the issue with the seriousness, sense of priority and focus that it deserves.

50th Anniversary Under this heading the President seem to have echoed the words of an earlier CPP statement “That we could have done better” and that we have fallen short of the aspirations of our founding fathers. The anniversary celebrations have been mis-handled by the NPP government from the beginning and the failures continue un-checked., with allocated funds now unaccounted for.

Malaysia is also celebrating its 50 anniversary and anyone who has monitored their plans cannot fail to notice that once again the Asian country has the edge.

Our government has failed to create the unity around the programme because of its failure to invite other parties to the table from the outset particularly the CPP, the Party of Ghanaian independence and African emancipation. Its appointments at the Ghana@50 Secretariat have failed to inspire or to deliver thus far. It is not too late to make amends but time is fast running out for this government to make the year a truly memorable year which unites all Ghanaians.

Long Live Ghana Forward Ever! Backward Never

R.N.A Akomfrah Chairman for Convention People’s Party (CPP UK & Ireland) Secretariat cppuk@hotmail.com