'Dumsor' Gave Me High Blood Pressure - Minister
Former
Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has revealed that he suffered from
high Blood Pressure (BP) following the persistent energy crisis, known
in local parlance as ‘Dumsor’.
“Around November to December
[2015], my health deteriorated, when I was coming to pick up this job
[Power Minister], I had no BP but at a point in time, it rose to
220/130…all this contributed to me resigning to go and cure myself,” he
revealed on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ on Friday.
The
Pru East Member of Parliament (MP) was the toast of the President during
his State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday.
President
John Mahama showered praises on him for working to ensure that the
energy crisis which lasted for more than 3 years and led to the death of
many and collapse of several companies comes to an end.
“I
salute the former Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, and his Deputy
Minister John Jinapor and their team of competent technical people. Mr.
Armah Kofi Buah and his team at the Petroleum Ministry I salute them.
But much work still needs to be done to give us the comfort of
sustainable generation going forward,” the President said.
Prior
to the President’s commendation of the former Power Minister, a Lecturer
at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr.
Isaac Owusu-Mensah sparked controversy by naming Dr. Kwabena Donkor as
the best Minister under the Mahama administration.
His argued
that he selected Dr. Donkor over the rest because he set himself a
target which he hoped to achieve but was man enough to resign when he
failed to achieve it.
“Kwabena Donkor is my best Minister so far
under the Mahama administration…no Minister has been like him under this
adminstration…he was true to himself and none of the ministers has been
this truthful…he did not achieve the benchmark and because of that he
resigned because he failed to achieve it…if all the Ministers set a
benchmark and achieve it half way, Ghana would not have been where it
was…,” he argued.
But Kwabena Donkor said on the Morning Show
that he did not achieve the target on a silver platter as according to
him, it had to take him several sleepless nights to work with his team
he named ‘Team Excellence’ to end the power crisis.
And this, he said, contributed to him developing the ailment.
| | President
Mahama was also given a similar dose of sleepless nights as he was
always called upon at odd hours when anything went wrong in the power
sector.
He however stated that he was humbled by the President’s commendation
“I
was humbled…for the whole world to be watching and President mentioning
your name, I was indeed humbled but the President deserves more
commendation because I used to call him around 1:00am anytime problems
arose because he is the senior minister of power,” he said.
With
his BP back to normal levels, Dr. Donkor said he would gladly embrace
any job offered him by the President in his administration.
“If
my lord, the President asks me to go and serve somewhere, I can’t turn
him down because we are in politics to serve,” he said.
Dr. Kwabena Donkor resigned from the Ministry on the last day of the year 2015. |
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| Source: adomonline.com |
$7bn Eni Deal: Mahama Saved Ghana $600m – Buah |
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A
renegotiation of the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Integrated Oil
and Gas Project, which includes the combined development of the Sankofa
Main, Sankofa East, Gye Nyame, Sankofa East Cenomanian, and Sankofa East
Campanian fields, saved Ghana $600 million, Petroleum Minister Emmanuel
Armah Kofi Buah has said.
Of the five fields, the former three are non-associated gas fields while the latter two are oil fields.
The
Government of Ghana signed a $7-billion deal with Italian oil firm Eni
to develop the fields. The projects started in 2015. However, Ghana’s
biggest opposition party, NPP, recently alleged that the deal was
bloated by between $2 billion and $3 billion.
The party and its
Minority in parliament raised issues with the contract during a recent
visit by Italian Prime Matteo Renzi to Ghana.
Responding to the
NPP’s allegations in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson on
Accra100.5fm’s breakfast show, Ghana Yensom, on Friday February 26, Mr
Buah said the initial OCTP deal that was negotiated by the Kufuor
administration with Vitol in 2006, left Ghana with only a 10% stake in
the project.
According to him, had the current government not
taken a second look at the deal through fresh negotiations and also not
brought in Eni as partners to develop the fields, Ghana would have lost
$600 million. He said Ghana, through the renegotiations, secured a 20%
stake in the project, instead of the 10% stake negotiated by the NPP in
2006.
Mr Buah, therefore, said he was befuddled by the NPP’s
claim that the contract was bloated. In his view, the NPP’s allegations
were meant to embarrass the Mahama administration while the Italian
Premier was in Ghana, but “they failed”.
He said the forebears of
the NPP did the same thing to Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame
Nkrumah, when he was building the Akosombo Dam.
“They are always
on the wrong side of history,” he said, adding: “…The over bloating
charge is neither here nor there. They have no proof. I’ve challenged
their assertions through a statement, but they haven’t come out to
respond…they are jokers.” |
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| Source: classfmonline.com |
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