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Opinions of Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Columnist: Mensah-Biney, Robert

Re: Science, Technology Endowment Fund launched

News article published on this forum on June 04, 2008

For the past two decades, I have constantly advocated for the establishment of indigenous research laboratories in Ghana to undertake both basic and applied research to solve the unique problems in Ghana. It is surprising and disappointing that this meager $500,000 seed money for science and technological research is being touted as a great feat and the first of its kind in the history of the nation. Ghanaian elites should be ashamed of themselves!

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=144858

The above referenced article clearly demonstrates why Ghana like many other third world countries, will continue to be classified as third world for a long time to come. It also confirms the fact that the good people of Ghana have no chance to get out of the humiliation of primitiveness, underdevelopment and poverty. Here is a country where during the last days of the NDC government, state owned businesses valued in the tens of millions of dollars were sold for few thousand dollars and an alleged endowment of $500,000 is hailed by all and sundry including talking heads on this forum. Here is a country where 200 members of parliament were each given $20,000 to purchase vehicles when every sane person in Ghana knew that these people did not need the funds because they all had access to vehicles and a measly endowment of $5000, 000 is considered as a feat that has never been heard of in the history of the country. Here is a country where during the hey days of the NDC government, individuals without any technical know how, business savvy and management skills were awarded contracts allegedly worth several millions of dollars without any accountability and an endowment of $500,000 for scientific research is considered as a great achievement. Here is a country that wasted about $20 million on the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the phony independence and their people come on these forums to cheer for a meager $500,000 endowment for allegedly scientific research. It is obvious to enquiring minds that this alleged $500,000 will not be used for its purpose and that is why it is being touted by the elites in Ghana and on these forums. The funds will not be managed properly, there will be no accountability for the fund, and there is no indication of any systematic planning that has gone into this proposed science and technology research.

Folks, as human beings we are allowed to have dreams, fantasies, myths and misconceptions and hollow visions. However, at the end of the day, reality sets in and common sense and actual results become the criteria to measure our development. We are in the 21st century and we as a people have to realize that we cannot achieve any meaningful development without indigenous research and development. Simple research project to control the traffic on the roads of the city of Accra has been lacking after 50 years of independence and several years of higher education for the people of Ghana. It is amazing that in Ghana one can find a traffic island (circle), a traffic light and a real human person controlling traffic at the same intersection. This is insane, and nobody has thought of conducting a simple research project to remedy this insanity. It is about time that the good people of Ghana demanded from their ruling elites (Ghanaian expatriates) to come up with sufficient funds to create national scientific research laboratories to conduct indigenous research to find solutions to our unique problems. The elites in Ghana should have the courage to indulge in indigenous research and be prepared to expect failures and to learn from their failures.

The technological achievements by people of the first and second world come about only after several try and errors during research and development. They spend tons of money from the tax payers to undertake both basic and applied research with the expectation that they would get some social benefits from such investment. There is no guarantee that scientific research will yield successful results in every case. However, it is imperative that every society engages in indigenous research to find ways to improve the standard of living for its people. For the past two decades, I have championed the cause for the establishment of scientific and industrial research laboratories in Ghana without any success. With all due respect to Prof. Ellis, Prof. Owusu-Bennoah, (Sr.) Mr. Baah-Wiredu and Ms. Ohene, our tertiary educational institutions were not designed by the Europeans to be capable of indigenous research. This is why UST and Legon cannot list any sustainable indigenous businesses that have been established as a result of indigenous scientific or industrial research conducted at these institutions. They were designed to produce boiler plate graduates who can only perform under the influence of their European supervisors. The graduates were not trained to have creative thinking abilities and in fact were discouraged to be creative. Any honest student who has been through these institutions will tell you that any attempt to be creative would be considered as trying to be smarter than your instructor and it is tantamount to getting yourself kicked out of the class or getting a failing grade at the end of the course. Similarly, the centers for scientific and industrial research were created by the colonial Europeans to be run and managed by the Europeans who would direct the native people. Consequently, the Ghanaian researchers at these centers were not expected to be creative and were not trained to use the results of projects conducted at these centers to create jobs for the good people of Ghana. It therefore behooves the good people of Ghana to find innovative ways to create indigenous research institutions other than from the tertiary institutions and the scientific and industrial research centers. Hence my constant drum beat of the establishment of national research laboratories.

Although the announcement of the paltry $500,000 endowment for research in the budget is commendable and may be considered as a first step, it is peanuts and should not be hailed. Instead, the good people of Ghana should demand from these parliamentarians to increase the amount by another order of magnitude, to at least $5,000,000. And, please do not tell me that the government does not have the money. There are several innovative ideas to generate the funds for research in Ghana, and if the parliament needs help to identify these ideas, they should send SOS message to qualified and experienced Ghanaian researchers especially those in the Diaspora and believe me, some of them will come up with innovative ideas. Parliament has to show the willingness to be really interested in research and not just to pay lip service to the idea. Ghana, and Africa for that matter, will never move an inch in the development ladder if it does not consider indigenous research as an important component of national development. The old thinking of following the standard operation procedures (SOP) of the colonial Europeans and expecting to develop will not work anymore. We as a people have to be creative and come up with ideas from within our indigenous resources rather than depending on the foreign sources for national development. Technology has advanced so much that one does not need to travel to foreign countries to be able to learn creativity, provided the country can provide the necessary enabling infrastructure. By the way, how did the government come up with a figure of $500,000 as the seed money? The legislative body in conjunction with the executive should come up with research priorities as well as the immediate research needs of the country to be able to decide on the appropriate amount needed to support research and development.

Here are some of the simple short-term research project ideas that need immediate attention in Ghana: (i) traffic problems in Greater Accra, Kumasi and other major cities - time study with stop watches and writing pads will provide preliminary results that may lead to a more sophisticated research; (ii) potable water for the rural and city inhabitants- simple filtration methods to clean natural waters, construction of canals, water ways, artificial lakes (innovative use of surface mining features); (iii) carrying of loads on top of human heads (kayakaye) – use of simple mechanical advantage devices to reduce the burden on human power; (iv) management of human and industrial waste – human manure, composting, recycling and reprocessing of waste; (v) walking long distances to get to farmlands – evaluate the idea of farmers building their houses and living on their farmlands instead of in faraway towns and commuting by foot to get to their farms; (vi) use of cutlass (machete) as the major farming tool – evaluate the most efficient method to use the cutlass if it can be proven to be the most appropriate farming toll for the kind of farming done in our part of the world, (vii) malaria epidemic – eradication of mosquitoes- innovative ideas other than mosquito nets and repellants. I am sure there are other favorite simple research ideas that could be added to this list.

In any case the $500,000 endowment fund is inadequate and nothing to write home about and the pressure should be put on parliament to increase this amount and force the members to take serious steps to set up several research laboratories in the country to undertake basic and applied research based on our indigenous resources and capabilities. It is instructive to attach below links to previous articles that I have written about this issue on this forum. We need to chart a new course in our national development and the establishment of national research laboratories is warranted.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=48601

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=54292

Email: mensah2000@hotmail.com