Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Don’t take IPPs, tanker drivers’ union for granted!

Last week, two events involving two differ­ent entities but having some similarities took place in the country.

These were the strike by members of the National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union (NPTDU); and the directive of the Chamber of Independent Power Produc­ers (IPPs) to its members to cut supply to the national grid from July 1-8, this year.

On Monday, members of the NPTDU declared an indefinite strike that took immediate effect as a protest over the bad road network, which was affecting their vehicles and operations.

They were particularly con­cerned with roads in the areas where they go to load petro­leum products and gas such as the Tema Oil Refinery to Kpone and the roads leading to the depots in Takoradi, Buipe and Kumasi.

The drivers were also worried about the BOST and NPA using seals and tracking devices to generate issues of false accusations of diver­sion of petroleum products and tampering with seals by the tanker drivers, which the drivers describe as unfair treatment by the authorities.

Even after a meeting between the leadership of the union and the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Kwasi Amoako-Attah, and officials of the Ministry on Tuesday, the drivers insisted that they would continue with their sit-down strike until the roads had been fixed.

In the case of the IPPs, otherwise known as the Chamber of Independent Power Generators, Ghana (IPGG), their decision was based on the fact that as of January 2021, they were collectively owed approxi­mately $1.73 billion by the government, which was deny­ing them funds and as such undermining their opera­tions because they could not finance crucial inputs such as chemicals for water treatment in thermal generators and other supplies.

In spite of the bad situa­tions they found themselves in, both the tanker drivers’ union and the IPGG agreed to rescind their decisions.

This means the drivers are at work and the IPPs too have abandoned the decision to shut down.

We commend the two entities for easing their posi­tions in the name of national interest more than anything else, we suppose.

We know that the Ministry of Roads and Highways has assured the tanker drivers of fixing the roads at the centre of their protest but we can say that assurance did not do the magic but the public-spir­itedness of the drivers.

It is no secret that unions in the country do not trust government or public of­ficials because they do not keep their word, which is why the resolution of strikes in­volving public-sector workers like the University Teachers Association of Ghana always drag.

At least, for once, we expect this assurance to be made good by the Ministry, spearheaded by its minister.

Similarly, we believe the IPPs looked beyond their interest and allowed public-spiritedness or the national interest to take precedence.

Imagine the effect of the dumsor within the eight days that they wanted to shake themselves.

We pray that the govern­ment and the ECG will make good the offer of payments made to the IPPs while they take advantage of the period of grace to clear the outstanding arrears to make things easy for the IPPs.

We hope other unions would emulate the attitude of the IPPs and the tanker driv­ers in the resolution of crises in the country to advance national development.