The Ministry of Energy asserts that the media has purposefully misrepresented Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh’s recent comments regarding the release of a load-shedding schedule in order to paint the Minister in an insensitive light.
In a statement released on March 26, the Energy Ministry’s Kofi Abrefa Afena stated that the minister’s position reaffirmed the government’s denial of the need for a “load management timetable.”
He claims that this stance, as expressed by the Electricity Company of Ghana, is predicated on continuous initiatives to deal with the underlying issues causing the intermittent power outages.
Speaking to media during the New Patriotic Party campaign team’s inauguration in the Ashanti Region, the Energy Minister urged detractors to create own schedule if they felt it was required.
However, the Minister has “always been sensitive to the plight of the Ghanaian people and continues to ask for their forbearance, as has always been the case when challenges relative to power stability emerge,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Energy.
Below is the full statement.
The Ministry of Energy has taken notice of the spin around an interview granted Joy News by Energy Minister, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh on the margins of the inauguration of the New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti Regional Campaign Team last Sunday. The rather innocuous statements of the Minister as captured by the Interview have been distorted to portray him as being insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and thus, we wish to avert the minds of Ghanaians to the context of the Interview and clarify as follows:
1. The Minister dismissed the need for a load management timetable because in his view and as indicated by the Electricity Company of Ghana, the causes of the temporary power challenges are being addressed. The Minister in the clip said, “Addressing the issues is not an event” which is rightly so.
2. The Minister’s comparison of the current energy sector to the one under former President John Mahama, where Ghanaians reeled under pervasive ‘Dumsor’ for 4 years, comes on the back of recent similar calls in the media space by the NDC Flagbearer for a load management time table. This call, in the view of the Minister is borne out of the quest to score cheap political points. In fact, a careful listen of the interview will show that, the comparative template was set by the interviewer.
3. In the said clip, the Minister is clearly seen straining his voice because of the obviously noisy background, in order to be heard by his interviewer. This has unfortunately been misconstrued. Dr. Prempeh is known to be very media friendly.
4. The Honourable Minister has always been sensitive to the plight of the Ghanaian people and continues to ask for their forbearance, as has always been the case when challenges relative to power stability emerge.
5. The Ministry wishes to assure the general public that the Ministry as the policy maker and mother agency of the various power sector actors is working assiduously with these agencies to ensure that the temporary challenges are resolved.
