By Alhassan Tettevi Amoah
Dumsor is a term in Ghana which describes when there is lights out, or when there is a power outage. There has recently been a spate of consistent and continuous power outages across various cities in different parts of the country and they seem to cut across at the same time. It would seem that we are back in the space of frequent and continuous power outages, popularly and commonly called “Dumsor” which connotes Putting out of the light (Dum) and putting it back on (Sor). This is not pleasant, especially in Ghana where we boast as one of the West African countries which enjoys a very consistent supply of power, at least compared to our counterparts in Nigeria (Africa’s most populous nation and Africa’s largest economy with GDP of $ 447 billion as at 2023).
The Electricity company of Ghana (ECG), the government company responsible for the disbursement of power has come out with statements to refute claims that the country is not experiencing dumsor, and that the continuous power outages in various parts of the country is as a result of technical issues. The two major political parties in Ghana the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) have also continued to turn this into a political game exchanging opinions about the incidence of it or not.
The Dumsor (power outages) has sparked a lot of frustration among the average Ghanaian individuals and business people as the intermittent and uninformed nature of these outages
These outages which happen simultaneously across several regions of the country often last as long as 8 to 10 hours per time and in some cases more.
There have been several calls from individuals and organizations to the ECG to come out with a light scheduling timetable for the power outages so that the citizens can better prepare themselves to accommodates the exigencies of this situation. But instead of that, the only narrative gotten is that “it is not dumsor” and as is characteristic of a lot of issues in Ghana from time immemorial, this has turned into a whole political exchange of rebuttals, especially from the major political parties.
In an interview with a plumber in Kumasi one of Ghana’s major cities the university graduate turned plumber stated: “They keep saying it is not dumsor, so if it is not dumsor then what is it? Our leaders are not serious at all.” Expressing his frustration he continues “I find it very annoying and an insult to my intelligence as a Ghanaian. Whether it is NDC in government, or NPP or CPP, or any other party. Right from when we were younger, when the lights go out… what do we all say? We all say it is dumsor. So, what is this unnecessary, irrelevant defense of whether it is dumsor or not?”
In the same vein Asantewaa (not her real name), a trader in Accra and a single mother of 4 children was totally aghast. In her words, “I went to my shop in Accra to sell, and then around 9’oclock in the morning they took the light The lights were off until 5pm in the afternoon when they brought it back. I closed from the shop and headed home to a different part of Accra, only for me to get home too and there was no light. So, I had to ask my child to go and buy candles so that we use for light in the house. They brought the light in the house around 10 o’clock and we thought at least we will sleep with the fan on tonight then all of a sudden, they took it again around 10:30pm in the night.
You could hear cries elderly women in our neighbourhood in the dark of the late night saying, ECG o baaa gbemi eeee (meaning, ECG you will kill me) other women and men kept saying ECG onyame be twua mu ka (meaning ECG, God will repay you). They said many other insulting words (words of very offensive nature, that we cannot print or publicize). And I understand them because a lot of them have their refrigerators, freezers and other electrical appliances on and with these on and off of the light, these appliances can get damaged. Apart from that, they must have put food stuffs in the fridge or freezer. And if the dumsor continues, all these food stuffs could get spoilt. There is no money in the country and things are hard, so how will they get money to buy more foodstuff for they and their children?”. And what time did they bring the light back? 2am in the morning, that is when they brought the light back. I and my family suffered to sleep all through the night.
And what is sadly surprising? Instead of the relevant authorities to figure out how to fix the problem, they are busy focusing their energies on defending the problem. I mean how absurd is that? Ghana and Africa for you.
Anyways, I hope that instead of this utterly irrelevant banter of political opinions about the definition (laughable) of this problem. The relevant governments, government agencies, or authorities will pay more attention to how this problem can be solved once and for all.
