Energy Minister John Abdulai Jinapor says the painful lessons of the 2016 election defeat have reshaped his approach to the energy crisis.

He warned that there will be no compromise on performance or accountability in the power sector.

Speaking on PM Express on Joy News on Wednesday, April 30, Jinapor admitted that the 2016 experience left a lasting mark.

“You know, as we grow and as we go through life, we learn. I’ve learned some very, very, very bitter experiences. I’ve learned some good experience,” he said.

He recalled his long years in the energy sector, saying that time and hard knocks had sharpened his instincts.

“I’ve been in the sector for quite a while. I mean, you’re talking about more than 16 years, and you’re looking at something about 20 years,” he said.

“So clearly, I’ve quite some experience in the sector. And so today, when the men come telling me things, I know what is happening. Twelve years ago, a lot of the things sounded a bit new.”

John Jinapor was reacting to a suggestion by host Evans Mensah that the 2016 election loss, which many attribute partly to prolonged power cuts, had made him more aggressive in tackling power sector issues.

“The ultimate regime killer is the power sector,” the journalist said. “You wouldn’t doubt that part of the reason why you lost elections was because of how long it took you to turn around that power crisis.”

In response, the minister nodded to the past and promised hard decisions in the present.

“Let me be frank, it’s better I dismiss that chief executive who is not working well before I get dismissed,” he declared. “And that one, there’s no compromise on that.”

John Jinapor said he has put in place a system of accountability that includes key institutions like the Energy Commission.

“I want us to set some KPIs and some timelines. We’ve set up a platform where all the key people are on,” he explained.

“I call it the MNGT value chain analysis, where we put all the key people on that platform, including how we manage capacity, transmission, distribution — everything.”

He emphasised that this system will not be for show.

“They’re going to give me timelines. They’re going to give me some targets. We’re going to keep them to that and monitor,” he said. “As Minister, I will ensure that there’s discipline, there’s hard work.”

John Jinapor also gave an example of how experience now helps him avoid outages in real time. “Three days ago, we were going to have load shedding,” he said.

“I gave some suggestions. For instance, VALCO gets 110 megawatts, but we were going to have a deficit of about 60 megawatts. I said, 'Look, let’s talk to VALCO so the smelter can work.

"They can bring them lower to 60 for those three hours. Just after three hours, you bring them back so that you don’t engage in load shedding.”

He said the move worked. “When they did that, we went through the system,” he said.

John Jinapor made it clear that under his watch, failure is not an option. “If you can’t do that, I recommend your dismissal,” he said.

“Let me be honest — this time, there’s no room for business as usual.”