Former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor says he is battling with blood pressure and diabetes as a result of the pressure that came with his work.
He told Lexis Bill on Joy FM’s Personality Profile Thursday, the nature of the work altered completely his lifestyle, including the time he slept.
“It was a huge burden…you don’t have a private life. There was no day I went to bed before 1am because His Excellency the President could call you at 2am [because] someone might have woken him up with a power challenge elsewhere,” Dr Donkor narrated.
Former President John Mahama
The former Minister was tasked by then President John Mahama in 2014, to solve the erratic power supply in which the country was plunged into in late 2012 to early 2016.
He was to restructure the power sector to ensure a more stable and secure energy supply.
The crisis localized as Dumsor, slowed economic growth, led to the loss of jobs and the collapse of some local industries, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) said.
The Power Minister had promised to resign if he was not able to end the power crisis in 2015.
True to his word, Dr. Donkor resigned his post on December 31, 2015, less than a year after heading the Ministry because the crisis persisted.
He explained, “I resigned because some people didn’t believe that load shedding had ended as at December 16, 2015, even within government.”
The Pru East MP said some officials of the then National Democratic Congress government claimed load shedding would return in January 2016 when banks had returned from their break.
“I enjoyed being a Minister but you come to the crossroad [and] the first people I spoke to were my immediate family and we agreed that [my resignation] was the honourable thing to do,” Dr Donkor said.
He said his decision saved him from insults that were hurled at him continuously on radio and national dailies.
“If you open any of the radio stations somebody is either insulting you or casting you…radio is the worse,” he recounted.
The opposition lawmaker said: “I never had BP and diabetes until I took the job but these things cropped up it became an occupational hazard.”
Three years after his resignation, Dr Donkor said he solved the crisis although many Ghanaians did not believe that. “Yes my team fixed it,” he told Lexis Bill.
Listen to excerpts of Personality Profile:
Dumsor job gave me BP, diabetes – Kwabena Donkor
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