Unacceptable!!! Ghanaians Protest Against Irregular Power Supply

Unlike in Nigeria where irregular and erratic power supply is accepted as part of the normal scheme of things,Ghanaian's are coming together to protests against their budding power shortages.

Ghanaian celebrities which include Yvonne Nelson, Van Vicker, Sarkodie, Fuse ODG and so many others are headlining the protests which they have tagged "DumSor" which literally means "On and Off," in reference to the poor state of Ghana's electricity supply.

 Ghanaian's certainly knows how to push their government to make things happen unlike Nigeria where nobody mentions stable electricity anymore.I hope Nigeria celebs can learn from this and come together to push for any change they want. Check out other photos of the protests below:

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Dangote To Provide Electricity For Nigerians, Invests $7bn

Current reigning Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has finally decided to intervene in Nigeria's epileptic power situation. He is to lead a $7 billion investment in the nation’s power sector, as well as petrochemical and mining sectors. 

Alhaji Dangote, who disclosed his intentions at a function in Lagos on Sunday, said that he will be investing in the construction of a 2,000 megawatt power-generation facility to boost electricity supply over the next four years. 

“We want to do power that will be about 2,000 MW, that is infrastructure,” he said.

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Deaths over Power Outage in Ghana.

As uncertainties continue to hang over the operations of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), information gathered by The Chronicle indicates that many more patients continue to lose their lives.

Fresh reports available to the paper indicate that two patients who were on the oxygen support machine, and another one at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), lost their lives at Thursday dawn as a result of lack of power supply.

A reliable source told the paper the three patients lost their lives around 2:00 am when power went off at a time medical staff were seriously attending to them at the Intensive Care Unit.

Information gathered further, revealed that about four patients were on the oxygen support machine when the power went off, resulting in the death of two, whilst the other two were said to be in critical condition.

The two reportedly died while in the oxygen machine after medical staff were said to have done everything possible to save their lives but to no avail, as there was shortage of oxygen supply due to lack of power to run some of the equipment at the hospital.

The Komfo Anokye teaching Hospital has for the past four days been in serious distress with respect to health delivery, after junior doctors embarked on a strike action to protest what they described as the poor state of affairs at the facility, and the seemingly apathetic attitude of the management towards the situation.

Officials at the hospital have been tight-lipped about the death of the three, including other causalities since Tuesday when the junior doctors decided to embark on the strike action.

The doctors, at the time of filing this report, were gearing up for meeting s with Minster of Health, Alban Sumana Bagbin, have been protesting against obsolete equipment at the Accident & Emergency Care Centre, and the irregular supply of water and energy to the hospital, which they said, were hampering the work of staff of the hospital.

The doctors accused the management and board of the hospital of having done little to address the anomalies despite several petitions, culminating in their decision to embark on the sit down strike to compel management to urgently act on the matter.

Bad blood has since developed between the junior doctors on one hand, and the board and management on the other, after the authorities were alleged to have accused the doctors of being politically-motivated.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health has been meeting other stakeholders, including the board and management, to find solutions to the problems confronting the hospital.

Mr. Bagbin has engaged authorities of the hospitals in a closed door meeting at the Regional Coordinating Council, and was expected to meet with the junior doctors afterwards.

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How apprentice, 25, got electrocuted

It was a tragic end for an apprentice electrician in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Mr Bola Ige. He fell off an electric pole after he was electrocuted while trying to rectify an electrical fault.

Daily Sun learnt that Ige’s boss was contacted for a repair work. The deceased volunteered to assist his boss at House number 10, behind Oba Tejuosho’s house, in the Government Reservation Area, Ibara, Abeokuta. His boss, Sina, denied sending Ige to climb electric pole but, “to identify and rectify only minor faults in his customer’s residence.”

He said he only sent him to fix minor electrical faults in his customer’s residence when he was called upon for an electrical fault in the house: “The person who lives in that compound is my customer. I have been fixing his engineering works for long.”

Wailing, Sina said: “It is sad and very painful to hear that my boy died after climbing a pole to carry out a repair work. I did not send him to climb the pole through which he later died. It is a sad thing.”

Sympathizers including the deceased’s mother wept like babies as Ige bled and foamed from the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. His body was eventually removed by the police who arrived the scene from the state Rapid Response Squad in a pick – up van with registration number PF 5385OG Toyota Hilux.

Ige’s mother who openly wept as she watched the lifeless body of her son refused to be consoled: “I am finished, my hope is dashed. I never dreamt or prayed that I would bury a child in my life. This is a terrible blow on me and my family. I will nurse this big wound till the rest of my life.”

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NIGERIAN NEEDS UNINTERRUPTED POWER SUPPLY

It is very embarrassing that in 2012 Nigeria as a country is still struggling with efforts to provide power for the majority of its citizens. As a result of greed, poverty and most importantly corruption, we have failed our selves in the provision of the most basic infrastructure that would improve the lives of average Nigerians.

It is easy to heap blame on the government but let us not forget that people that are governed can positively influence the actions of those in power.

I agree that the power situation in Nigeria is now a very desperate situation that calls for desperate measures. It is a matter of fact that Nigerians should demand the provision of infrastructure that will improve their lives.

A country with an estimated population of over 180 million citizens and as much as $200 million (USD) daily revenue from oil resources can not boast of providing up to 25% of its population with reliable power supply...we have the resources, the work force and the right ideas. What we lack is proper implementation.

The people should surely demand that this service is provided and until we can find a way to unify our massive population in the demand for what should be provided for us, we will not make meaningful progress in almost every other aspect of national growth.

Reliable power supply is key to better existence for every Nigerian. Be it poverty eradication, small businesses, education, health care delivery, rail transportation, telecoms & what have you. It is time to demand for what is right to be done, as complicated as it may seem, it can still be done.

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Delta state draw a master plan for 24-hour electricity supply

DELTA State has produced an energy master plan that will enable it provide 24-hour electricity to the people and also drive its industrialisation process.

The master plan includes gas production and utilization, generation, transmission and distribution and is engaging investors from around the world in these areas.

Chairman of Delta State Integrated Development Project, DIDP, a Public-Private Partnership development programme, Mr. Godwin Akpobire, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen, yesterday, in Warri, Delta State.

He said already, the state is planning an energy conference, tagged ‘Delta Electricity Conference’ to brainstorm on the electricity supply market that will soon emerge in the state.

He said: “There are also plans for a Delta Electricity Conference soon. The energy conference will enable us to explain to Deltans our model for the provision of electricity for the state.

It is my hope that in Delta State, every community will have electricity for 24 hours and the fulfillment of that dream is not dependent on the functional capabilities of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN alone.”

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Electricity Tariff Hike: 'Consumers Can Now Sue For Outages'

Electricity consumers now have the right to sue distribution companies for inefficiency, Managing Director of Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO), Samuel Agbogun, has said.

He stated this yesterday during an exclusive interview with NEWMEN in Abuja, against the background of increased electricity tariff soon to be rolled out by the federal government.

According to him: “The Electricity Reform Act has adequate provision for consumer protection, in fact one reason the Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is in place is to ensure that both the consumers and the service providers are in a win-win position.”

Agbogun informed that the regulatory commission has been put in place to ensure that customers’ rights were protected especially in the sense of service provision and sustainability, adding that where problems traceable to the companies are found, they would be sanctioned.

“In fact, now we have a chance to sue the company’s failure to provide good service based on the contracts signed with them, before now we couldn’t do that,” he added.

While noting that the whole idea of tariff increase was to attract investors who ordinarily would not bring in their money unless they were sure of making profit, he said government would find a way to take care of the poor who may not be able to pay the tariff by way of providing subsidies.

However, he explained that there are certain occurrences that may not give consumers rights to protest, for example, he said if there were natural disasters like the recent Lagos storm, the Lagos Distribution Company cannot be held responsible.

He said government was optimistic that with the prepayment meters coming in, consumers would not lose anything.

“You pay for what you consume, so when there are natural disasters and power is out, your money is saved. We are hoping that this would be the situation, but by and large, it would be a win-win situation for all,” he assured.

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Ghana to sell electricity to Nigeria

Ghana’s ruling government has concluded plans to begin export of electric power to Nigeria and other West African countries by 2015. 

The country’s Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who unfolded the plan in Accra, on Tuesday, said the government has already embarked on extensive expansion of power infrastructure to enable them achieve the project. 

 Mahama explained that a key motivation for the investment was that Ghana presently has competitive advantage in the area of power supply over other neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, which is still grappling with massive power deficit for its estimated 150 million citizens. 

The vice president, who spoke at a summit on Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Compact Two in Accra, said the country intends to consolidate on its existing energy infrastructures by exploring alternative sources of supply, including solar power and biomass resources, to ensure that the target of selling power to other West African countries was achieved by the next four years. 

 Mahama, who underscored the imperative of stable energy in the economic development of his country said Ghana was partnering the United States Government to realize the dream, stressing that raising the nation`s power generation would in addition create wealth and alleviate poverty among her citizens. 

It was in the light of that initiative that the Millennium Challenge Account Compact two was organized to seek ways of funding power generation and transmission and uninterrupted power supply. 

 Under the arrangement, the country intends to increase her current 2000 megawatts of electricity to 5000 megawatts with the hope of selling surpluses to needy countries including Nigeria. Also speaking, Ghana’s deputy minister of Energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini explained that the country would require about $1.7billion to meet its quest for universal access to power supply, pointing out the President Arthur Mills government had already received about $966.55million from bilateral and multilateral institutions in that regard.

 Alhaji Fuseini said there was a` shortfall of about $729million against which background it considered MCA compact two was considered useful. IT would be recalled that Ghana has one of the largest dams in the world had in 2009 celebrated her ten years of uninterrupted power supply. 

Authoritative sources say that the Akosombo Dam built by late President Kwame Nkrumah has the potential to supply the entire West Africa with electricity if fully utilized. It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had shortly after being sworn-in in May reviewed the nation’s power roadmap, raising fears that Nigeria may continue to live with power shortages in the foreseeable future.

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