Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI Africa has dissociated the organization from any direct involvement in the 2015 vigil held against the then government over dumsor – scheduled power outages.
He stressed in a message on X that the vigils organized against the John Dramani Mahama government were organized by pressure groups – that are usually ad-hoc, unlike IMANI which he described as a “permanent institution.”
Simons was reacting to a recent call for new dumsor protests by actress Yvonne Nelson who was a lead activist in the popular 2015 protest.
Nelson’s post on X (dated April 22, 2024) called on IMANI specifically to commit to helping organize the protest because of their previous record.
“Imani Ghana, can we organize another vigil? I’ve been waiting for you to reach out like you did years back. (your team made our demo a success) I’m reaching out myself. The NPP and its leadership @NAkufoAddo have taken Ghanaians for granted. #DUMSORMUSTSTOP,” her post read.
Simons pointed out that IMANI had continued to take the government on over several issues relating to the power supply ecosystem accusing Yvonne Nelson of not amplifying the same.
When an X user pointed out that Yvonne’s call was well grounded with the current dumsor citizens were enduring, Simons responded: “Except that IMANI didn’t organise any vigils.
“They were organised by pressure groups. Pressure groups are not permanent institutions. Ghana’s problems require long-term consistent advocacy best suited to INSTITUTIONS. Do YOU support such institutions? Does Ms. Nelson?”
The ‘dumsor’ palava
As far back as late 2023, Ghanaians in many parts of the country began experiencing incessant power cuts without warning.
These outages, which worsened in 2024, caused disruptions to businesses and the daily activities of citizens.
This has led to some citizens concluding that ‘dumsor’ is back.
The ‘dumsor’ situation in 2015 led to a massive protest which saw many celebrities including Yvonne Nelson and Prince David Osei partaking.
However, many government officials have claimed the outages are not a result of ‘dumsor’. They also insist that there was no need for a timetable.
The problem was further worsened when the Minister for Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, challenged those calling for a timetable to come up with one themselves.
BB,
Those… aren't her forte.
Perhaps you MUST realise that the Ghanaian public is DEMANDING EQUITY & CONSISTENCY in checking the government.
If the vigil was used to press for fixing DUMSOR during NDC, surely, it's justifiable to wonder why it's not being used during NPP.
— GONJA MAN (@1Farakhan) April 23, 2024
