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The Great American depression, for many Ghanaians was just a story but in many significant ways Ghana's economic downturn triggered by a jetting fall of the cedi; a nauseating power paralysis and a rather calm, casual president John Mahama who is busy playing down the effects of his failures on the citizenry only paint a picture of just what the Americans went through under president Herbert Hoover.

In the late 1920s to early 30s when Americans were wailing under a great depression, their president never cared enough except to label their suffering as a "passing incident in our national lives."

Banks shut down, businesses gave up, more than 15 million Americans became unemployed in what was an unmistakable national disaster. Yet president Herbert Hoover sat back watching, promising it would be over in 60 days. Nothing happened in 100 days until a new president came with a new deal.

Several decades down the line the country which only recently, struck oil, attained a lower middle income status and was loftily referred to as the rising star of Africa is gradually turning into a sinking ship, a miserable spectacle of Ghana's own version of the great depression and we have our captain, our president looking on either with empty assurances or misguided comments.

I say this with great pain and despondence because, like many Ghanaians the house which serves as a resting place after a tiring day's job has become hell. For over three years many go through restless days and sleepless nights just because our government does not have a clue how to provide power.

For three years many go to work tired because they did not have a good sleep or did not sleep at all. At least those category of persons will be thankful, wouldn't they? Because they still have a job but for how long one may ask?

There are others, many others whose jobs have been taken away from them because the power crisis is taking a devastating toll on employers.

There are artisans, barbers, dressmakers all of whom have resorted to buying generators to keep up under a seemingly eternal power crisis. There is increasing cost of production right there which means consumers would have to pay more.

The country is increasingly becoming a living hell because with 24 hours darkness 12 hours of power nothing smart can be done under such a load shedding regime.

How did we get here?

The comedy of excuses underlining the eternal darkness Ghanaians have been plunged into is just as annoying as the darkness itself. First it was pirates who destroyed the West African gas pipeline. A six hour off; 18 hours on load shedding programme was announced as a result of the destruction of the pipeline. After several months, the pipeline was repaired but Ghanaians still remained in darkness.

Then the blame was shifted to Nigeria for failing to provide adequate gas to power the country's plants. There were plants but no gas to fuel them to provide power, we were told. The Atuabo gas project was cited as one of the projects to ameliorate the power disaster. The project was completed but instead of the crisis abating, it worsened. Now there is more gas but the plants have suddenly broken down in batches and are under repair.

With all my limited knowledge on the fine technical details I still struggle to understand how our supposedly competent technical men will allow our plants to go on regular maintenance at the same time when we have crisis on our hands.

In the wake of the drama surrounding the availability or otherwise of gas, and chain of repairs of our power plants the load shedding regime increased from six hours off to 12 hours off.

In the mist of this crisis came the pomp and pageantry that accompanied the commissioning of the 400 megawatts Bui Hydroelectric power.

At the Commissioning, President John Mahama assured that dumsor was going to be over and that Ghana was ready to export power to neighboring countries to shore up the country's revenue generation.

But shortly after the commissioning things got worse. In a historic, unprecedented dumsor breaking record, the load shedding time table then became 24 hours off, 12 hours on.

Then came the mother of all explanations- water shortage at the Akosombo dam. For every government which has had to implement a load shedding exercise, the water level at the Akosombo dam was almost always the limping excuse. And for our limping government the Akosombo dam had to come in at all cost to make the dumsor story complete.

Rather surprisingly, during festive occasions like Christmas, Easter or during big football events like the World Cup or African Cup, our government against all reasonable odds throw these excuses into the dustbin where they rightfully belong and provide citizens with uninterrupted power.

And just after these events there is a return to an artificial, self inflicted load-shedding regime with no plan, no conscience just darkness.

Now many Ghanaians cannot even get the 12 hours uninterrupted power after enduring the disgusting 24 hours of darkness.

The sad part of all these is that Ghanaians cannot complain. They must shut up and cry in silence because if they do they are tagged as anti government and that comes with a penalty. There are vultures in government and surrogates in the media waiting to tear apart anyone who will dare criticize our non-performing government.

If you work for a company and you dare criticise the status quo, your company is put on the wanted list. So whilst the dumsor is already killing your company, there are plots in high places to ensure that your company dies even faster. [This is a topic for another day].

In all these our president appears to have studied so well under the feet of Herbert Hoover who, even in the darkest nights of the great depression sang an empty chorus of light at the end of the tunnel.

Mahama and his power minister has for years sang many of such choruses in our greatest times of depression. 
"Our power supply challenges are temporary and we would soon consider them to be a bad nightmare from which we have awoken." Mahama said.

"The darkest period of the night is the period just before day break. We assure you that we are closer to daybreak than we think," his Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor said.

At every least opportunity they get, the two honorable men throw in these empty words as if the words were God's declaration of let there be light.

Are we not tired of hearing these choruses when all we see is darkness; when all we feel is heat?

We have been left to pit our wits, our will against the harsh realities of life and when we make choices we feel are better under the circumstances our president will come and tell us how not smart we are.

At least for a smarter, more humane president whose government is struggling to fix the power crisis I would have thought prices of petrol, and diesel would have been reduced at least to ease the financial burden on the citizens.
But no! Even when prices of crude oil on the international market have fallen to an all time low in over a decade our government believes it is time to pay full prices with no subsidy. Now that is smart. Isn't it?

Our government keeps tightening the screws of hardships in a haphazard display of incompetence and yet we suffer in silence.

Through our collapsing health systems, disgusting sanitation challenges which have claimed hundreds of lives through cholera; corruption infested scandals- GYEEDA, SADA, SUBAH our government continues to wave its blunders, failures like a victory flag with citizens left with no choice but to also look on whilst the few enjoy the booty.

I am a passionate Ghanaian, an incurable optimist but three years in darkness should be enough for me or any concerned Ghanaian to ask questions of the commitment of our government to resolve the crisis we have been plunged into.

If according to Haruna Iddrissu the Kufuor government had no business introducing a dumsor regime in Ghana- a statement i fully support, then i say the Mahama government with oil proceeds, has no damn business putting us in this situation for well over three years.

I am almost tempted to believe he loves the title of the president than the people he is presiding over, otherwise, what in the world would explain three hellish years in darkness?

Mr Mahama fix the dumsor now! Hear our shrill voices and pretend it is Christmas or Easter all over again. Give us light. That is all we ask for!