I will ensure your lights stay on – President Mahama assures amid dumsor scare

President John Dramani Mahama has assured Ghanaians that his administration will take decisive actions to resolve the ongoing energy sector challenges and avert looming power outages.

He emphasised the commitment of his newly constituted technical committee to draft a comprehensive plan to address the issues arising from the planned maintenance (pigging) exercise on the West Africa Gas Pipeline.

Delivering a speech on Thursday, 9 January 2025, at the 92nd Annual National Convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Pomadze, Central Region, the President acknowledged the threat of blackouts known locally as ‘dumsor’ and attributed the situation to the Akufo-Addo administration’s failure to make adequate provisions for the pigging exercise, originally scheduled for October 2024.

To forestall blackouts, because of the loss of almost 2,000 megawatts of power, we have to make provision for fuel. And this is light crude oil, heavy fuel oil and distillate fuel. Unfortunately, enough provision was not made for this eventuality.

President Mahama assured Ghanaians that his government would focus on solutions rather than excuses.

My brothers and sisters, don’t despair. Like I said, you elected us to solve the problems, not to put the blame on anybody else or to shoulder you with those problems. Yesterday I called a meeting of all the stakeholders in the electricity value chain, and they have been sitting since yesterday to come out with innovative solutions so that we’re able to keep the lights on.

He further pledged to empower the justice system to address systemic inequalities in the country.

I can assure you that this administration will work tirelessly to ensure that every Ghanaian, regardless of your status or background, is treated with dignity and afforded equal protection under the law.

To achieve this, the President reiterated his plans to advance the stalled constitutional review process by establishing a committee to plan a national constitutional review validation conference.

Additionally, he reaffirmed his campaign promise to hold a National Education Review Conference aimed at improving the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme.

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