By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Folks, I am really pissed off by this headline: “Pray for rains to end power crisis—Energy Minister rallies Ghanaians”. Worse still is the news report accompanying it:

The Minister of Energy, Emmanuel Armah Buah, has urged Ghanaians to pray to God for enough rains into the dams to deal with the erratic power supply currently plaguing the country.

Pointing out this divine option on Metro TV's Good Evening Ghana program Tuesday, Mr. Buah rallied Ghanaians saying "what we have to do is to pray that this year the rains will come enough for Bui [dam] to give us at least 200 megawatts".

This is not the first time Ghanaians have been asked to pray for rains. In 2007, a group of Ghanaian pastors impressed by President Kufuor's hope that "God will not allow the Akosombo dam to hang" met to pray for rains when Ghana faced a similar crisis.

(See: http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2014/May-28th/pray-for-rains-to-end-power-crisis-energy-minister-rallies-ghanaians.php)

The energy crisis can be solved by better means than prayers to God for rains!! Why are our government functionaries so narrow-minded in their approach to such issues? Rain is caused by many factors (We have different types of rainfall, based on how they are caused: convectional rainfall, relief or orographic rainfall, and many others). Whether God is behind it all is none of my business.
After endowing us with the faculty to think so we can find solutions to our existential problems, what business again does God have to descend from the Heavens to solve such problems for us?

I know that it will take more than rainfall to solve the “Dum…sor” crisis. For a whole Minister in charge of energy to settle on prayers to God as the panacea is not only disappointing but also irritating!!
Lazy thinking that is profusely supplemented with incompetence at all levels in planning, management, and upright conduct in governance are responsible for the crisis facing our country. That crisis has nothing to do with any divine force for which any government official or Man-of-God should annoy us to pray over. The fact that this Minister of Energy has come out to make this plea really persuades me that the government is full of characters whose idle thinking can’t help us solve our problems of national development.
I am not surprised that this Armah Buah is surrounded by the controversy regarding forgery of his signature for illicit deals in the petroleum sector. If we had a good justice delivery system, the truth would have been established by now to get him out of government.
I have insisted all along that the country’s problems aren’t being solved because those in charge of affairs are not fit to be there. For as long as they wrap their lazy brains/minds around a divine power and rush to demand that Ghanaians see things through their eyes, we can’t go anywhere. Our country will continue to lag behind in spite of its abundant natural endowments. Lazy thinking can’t take us out of the woods!!
I shall return…
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