Buah, Donkor In Risky Power-Play...Prez Mahama�s Gov�t Likely To Suffer

At a time Ghanaians are bearing the pangs of the unending and excruciating power crisis and are expectant President Mahama’s government would work to surmount the challenges, two of his ministers in charge of the energy sector are embroiled in needless internecine turf war likely to ruin government’s effort at ameliorating the worsening energy crisis, The aL-hAJJ can report.

The two, former Energy Minister now in charge of Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah and newly appointed Power minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, are reported not seeing eye to eye with each other over some trivial issues like “who controls more power and influence” unmindful of the challenges and threat confronting Ghanaians and the government over the erratic power supply now christened “dumsor dumsor.”

Among petty issues the two ministers are haggling over, The aL-hAJJ investigations have uncovered include, the redistribution of personnel, logistics and policy direction of their respective ministries. The two ministers, this paper has gathered, are also at each other's throat over office space and accommodation.

The rift between the two gentlemen, The aL-hAJJ gathered, began immediately President Mahama decided to decouple “Power” now headed by Dr Kwabena Donkor, from the Energy Ministry then under Armah Buah, a situation many claimed didn't go down well with the latter.

Sources familiar with the power struggle between the Pru East and Ellembelle MPs described it as petty, saying with the carving out of the Power Ministry, which controls about 70% of staff and functions from the hitherto Energy ministry, the latter with only about 30%, the two energy gurus should have sat down and negotiated amicably on the way forward.

It is alleged that the Power minister’s belligerent position on the matter didn’t go down well with an equally no-nonsense Ellembelle MP, who is said to have refused to vacate his office for the Power Minister, and until recently also allegedly, shrugged off persistent appeals to release some 16 vehicles belonging to the erstwhile Ministry of energy, which were in his custody.

The simmering feud, according to The aL-hAJJ’s dependable sources at the seat of government, even attracted the attention of the Chief of Staff, Prosper Douglas Bani, who, the sources say, was unsuccessful in his attempt to bring closure to the matter.

According to some senior government officials familiar with the ongoing turf war by the two ministers, who also incidentally, are in charge of critical sectors of the struggling Ghanaian economy, the concrete resolution of the feud described as self-centeredness will demand President Mahama “puts his feet down and call them to order” or risks paying a huge price especially as the country heads to general elections next year.

Reports are that it took the intervention of the Chief of Staff for Armah Buah to somehow release some of the 16 vehicles he was alleged to be keeping.

The country has been in dire energy crisis which has lasted for over a year as a result of which the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has introduced load shedding and load management.

As part of plans to devote much attention to the electricity sector, President Mahama late last year created the Power Ministry out of Energy Ministry and appointed Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Mines, Dr Kwabena Donkoh, as the sector Minister.

But the ministers, who are also Members of Parliament for their respective constituencies have since the split of the energy ministry been bickering, over matters sometimes described as trivial.