Power Minister resigns over Dumsor

The Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has resigned from his position.

He resigned today [Thursday] according to sources very close to the Minister.

The Minister of Power had promised to resign if he fails to end the four-year old power crisis by the end of 2015.

President John Mahama separated the Power Ministry from the Energy and Petroleum Ministry in a bid to give it all the necessary resources and attention to solve the power crisis.

Deep throat sources close to the situation have told citifmonline.com that one of these three names; Nii Osah Mills, Kwame Awuah Darko and John Jinapor is likely to replace Dr. Kwabena Donkor.

Nii Osah Mills is the current Minister of Lands and Natural Resources while Kwame Awuah Darko is the Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST).

John Jinapor is the Deputy Minister of Power.
(From left) Nii Osah Mills, Kwame Awuah-Darko and John Jinapor

(From left) Nii Osah Mills, Kwame Awuah-Darko and John Jinapor

Dr. Donkor’s replacement according to government sources will be announced in President Mahama’s reshuffled list of Ministers.

There have been reports of an imminent reshuffle but citifmonline.com has gathered the reshuffling will be done next week.

Just on Wednesday, the Power Ministry issued a statement announcing the end to load shedding in the country.

The three-paragraph statement signed by Kweku Sersah-Johnson, Head of Public Affairs, for the Power Minister, said ” the Ministry of Power wishes to inform the public that its load shedding programme in respect of electricity supply has been brought to an end.”

“The Ministry takes this opportunity to express its profound gratitude and appreciation to the entire citizenry and residents of Ghana for their forbearance and understanding during those difficult times.”

“The Ministry of Power and its agencies wish to assure the public that it shall continue to pursue policies and programmes to consolidate the gains so far made in the generation and transmission of electricity for the country,” the statement concluded.

President Mahama had in February 2015 said he will hold Dr Kwabena Donkor to his word over promise he made about resolving the power crisis.

“I will hold the minister to his publicly stated commitment to resolve the electricity supply deficit by the end of this year,” Mahama said.

Before his appointment as the Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor was very critical of the Mahama-led government in the handling of the power crisis.

He said Ghanaians in demanding better governance and adequate power supply “are too short-termish in our approach across government. We should move from short term orientation to long term, if we don’t we will keep on firefighting. What we are doing currently is pure firefighting.”
– See more at: http://citifmonline.com/2015/12/31/power-minister-resigns-over-dumsor/#sthash.JtUIEc5N.dpuf