Dumsor: You don’t run a country with oratory – Yaa Jantuah to Akufo-Addo

Nana , the former General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), has cautioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to be mindful of his rhetoric on the erratic power supply (Dumsor), stating that a country is not governed by mere oratories.

The comments of the former Director of Public Relations and External Affairs at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) follow President Akufo-Addo’s assertion that there’s no dumsor under his tenure.

Moreover, the President stated that the recent power challenges facing the country have been effectively resolved and will not return.

He emphasised that on Tuesday, April 30, there were no power outages across the country.

“Issues surrounding the maintenance of the transformers have been resolved, Indeed, we have witnessed stable power supply across the country with no load shedding reported anywhere yesterday [Tuesday, April 30]…I am confident that the unfortunate era of dumsor will not return,” the President told organised labour during the annual May Day celebration in Accra on Wednesday.

President Akufo-Addo addressing workers on May Day

But Nana Yaa Juantuah disagreed with the President.

Speaking on The Big Issue segment on TV3 New Day on Thursday, May 2, she disclosed that she experienced a 12-hour-long dumsor on the same Tuesday the President referred to.

“The dumsor is with us…we are in a dire situation that has to be dealt with…and they should stop lying about it.

The President should be careful that you don’t rule a country with oratory.

When we are in a serious situation, you deal with it in a very serious manner,” she said, adding, “Oratory does not solve problems.”

She added: “Oratory will win you election but oratory doesn’t solve problems.”

According to her, people are going through serious situations as far as dumsor is concerned, hence the need for the President to be forthright when commenting on such issues.

She further noted that businesses are going down due to dumsor and “when you talk, they will tell you cannot compare it to John Mahama’s dumsor,” stating that the government of the day was not voted into office to draw comparisons with previous administrations.

“Nobody has dumsor on their name, the President himself do not have dumsor on his name, it is a situation that has to be resolved; there’s nothing wrong with the nation going through such a challenge,” she noted, stressing that the government should “accept the challenges and let’s all resolve them.”

“I don’t understand the behaviour of the President…because whoever briefed him?

The handlers who briefed him did they tell him Dumsor is gone?

He said Tuesday…and on Tuesday I was in Dumsor wide area, I found out…my lights were off on Tuesday 6 to 6 straight 12 hours that is Dumsor.

“You cannot describe it as anything but there’s a challenge in the system,” she noted.