Of the energy crisis and spin doctoring

I just returned from the UK about a month ago. Whiles in the UK I met some Ghanaian business persons who have relocated their businesses to the UK due to the on-going shameful energy crisis and its resultant infamous and frustrating power rationing exercise.

In writing about my interviews with some of those business persons I did mention that whiles the whole nation suffer this unfortunate repeat of the energy crisis of the 1990s plus investors and potential investors are reconsidering their investments in Ghana, politicians keep lying through their teeth about the energy crisis.
Obviously the politicians are not reading the news about the real effect of the energy crisis on our economy. Why do I say that? Because just within the week I returned from the UK I tuned in to Joy FM to listen to News File, a very popular current affairs talk show, in which the energy crisis was thoroughly discussed and I heard one of the biggest lies a politician could tell about the energy crisis.
The panelists included government?s spokespersons on Good Governance Frank Agyekum. Government spokespersons are arguably nothing more than spin doctors. Frank actually came late to the programme, but he came in time for the discussion of the energy crisis.
Apparently during the week he had participated in a meeting, where according to him, lasting solutions to the energy crisis was supposed to have been discussed, so he was over confident in his responses to questions about the energy crisis.
As usual the opposition NDC representative on that programme had his say and threw punches, which were nothing more than the concerns of the public and the fact the government and its representatives kept telling lies and half truths about what they are doing about the crisis and when exactly the crisis is going to end.
One would expect an opposition politician to always articulate the concerns of the masses, but wait until the same person comes into power and you would know if he was really concerned about the masses or he just took advantage of an opportune moment to score cheap political points.
But be that as it may, the concerns were real, because we were told the crisis was going to end last year October, then it changed to November, then December, now we are in May 2007 and we still did not know when it was going to end until when the government spin doctor decided to throw another promise at us.
In his response to the question from the moderator (Matilda Asante) Mr. Agyekum assured the public that at that meeting, the most elaborate plan of action was formulated to ensure that the energy crisis comes to an end in AUGUST 2007. He confidently said that in ending the crisis, the NPP government will put in place the kind of infrastructure that this country has not witnessed under any government since the time of Kwame Nkrumah.
That sounded very ironic for me because in the words of the forefathers of the party which is now called NPP, Kwame Nkrumah?s Akosombo Dam was over ambitious and yet 40 to 50 years on their descendants are using that over ambitious infrastructure as a standard for what they are about to do. Times change, but we live to see.
For good measure the moderator of the talk show asked if Mr. Agyekum really meant that the energy crisis was going to end in August 2007 and his response was ?for sure we are prepared to end the crisis definitely in August.?
Then the moderator recapped the Mr. Agyekum's promise and informed the public right away that the energy crisis was going to end in August.
Minutes after the announcement the deputy Minister of Information and National Orientation, Ms Oboshie Sai-Coffie, who also happened to have participated in that meeting where the lasting solution to the energy crisis was supposed to have been discussed, called in to the programme with a correction to the Mr. Agyekum's statement.
As a matter of fact Ms Sai-Coffie is Mr. Agyekum's boss. She stated thus: "I want to correct an erroneous impression created by Mr. Agyekum." That was a diplomatic way of saying Mr. Agyekum told a lie and she called in to correct that lie.
Ms. Sai-Coffie went on to say that it was never decided at that meeting to end the energy crisis in August as the Frank said but the deadline was put at SEPTEMBER 31, 2007. She actually added that even the SEPTEMBER 31 deadline was not a sure date because it could go beyond that.
As I listened to the Ms Sai-Coffie speak I was wowed about how these government spokespersons are paid so heavily with the taxpayers money just to be spin doctors for the government, especially where the government is failing, except in this case Frank's own boss gave him up.
In fact when he first gave that August deadline, myself and my friends who were with me then had our doubts and we just brushed it off as another lie and we were right.
However in Ms Sai-Coffie?s attempt to give Frank up, she repeatedly committed a serious. She forgot the simple primary school recitation about the months in the years - 30 days have September, April, June and November, all the rest have 31, except February alone, which has 28 days clear and 29 in each leap year.
Please someday tell Ms Sai-Coffie that there are only 30 days in September; unless of cause like Kweku Sintim Misa (KSM) said, there is a new Presidential Special Initiative (PSI) to ad an extra day to September just to set the deadline for ending the energy crisis. Or could Ms. Sai-Coffie herself be lying to us?
But that is not the point; the point is that whiles this government keeps paying people to spin doctor issues regarding this energy crisis, the masses are getting continuously frustrated, both local and foreign investors are moving out of the country, potential investors are reconsidering their decision to come and even tourists are confused whether to come to Ghana or not.
Let us be honest with the statistics and we will realize that within this short time we have lost out significantly on tourist and investor inflows. The traffic is outward rather than inward. This is real and I know this.
At least in this case the deputy minister came out with the truth, even though that is also not impressive enough, given that they are still not certain about their "September 31st" deadline, even if that date exists.
Before this government came to office they assured Ghanaians that when voted into power they will cut down on the number of government ministers to reduce government spending. But they are on record as having done worse in terms of the number of ministers, deputy ministers, special assistants and spokespersons all at the expense of the taxpayer.
Sadly, the spokesperson concept has done nothing more than put more pressure on the taxpayers pocket because they do nothing more than tell blatant lies on behalf of the core government functionaries. As long as their lies serve their masters' purpose they remain in office, otherwise they are out.
Remember the ousted president's spin doctor, Kwabena Agyepong, who lied between his teeth about the infamous IFC loan until the truth was discovered later - remember the government spokesperson on Social Services, Amponsah Bediako who kept lying about the coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme until media reports from the ground exposed him?
Talk about the Elizabeth Ohene's, Nana Ohene Ntows and others, all of whom were either kicked out of the spin doctoring job for poor performance or were given different appointments where they cannot harm the government with their poor spin doctoring skills.
But people, do not forget that yet another promise has been made as to when the power crisis will end. The deadline is SEPTEMBER 31, 2007. And it would be with a bang because if the Frank's word is anything to go by, then this government intends to do about our energy crisis what no other government has done about energy since Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. But sadly SEPTEMBER 31st does not exist. God help us.

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