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23.01.2013 Article

Where are our scientists?

By William Kofie
Where are our scientists?
23.01.2013 LISTEN

“Ghana's economy is booming”. That is what most analysts say. “Ghana is now a middle income economy”, the Ghana government claims. Most people agree that Ghana is thriving economically due to the peace and security currently being enjoyed. The sub Saharan country has now become the focus of global attention. This is in part due to the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities. The availability of vast amounts mineral resources has brought influx of science and technology experts into the country.

The ultimate question most people will be asking is; where are Ghanaian scientists? Where are the Ghanaian science and technology professionals to take control over the production and management of these vast natural resources? Where are our science graduates when we need them mostly? The emphasis of our education system has been biased towards the training of finance and social science professionals to the detriment of applied and applied science graduates. Most of the private universities springing up across Ghana also offer non science based courses. When we've managed to produce scientists, they have always been trained with centuries old theories with very little or no practical approach to problem solving. Our institutions over the years have lacked the facilities to produce pure science and engineering graduates to meet the challenges of our country in the twenty first century and times to come.

We have been over reliant on foreign expertise to provide for our science and technological needs and to build our basic infrastructure. Currently, we are again relying on foreign scientist to take care of the exploration and production of our mineral resources. Where are our scientists? We need our own scientists to build our roads, we need them to build our bridges, and we need our scientists to develop the medicines that will treat our malaria and the many other tropical diseases prevalent in Ghana. And definitely, we need Ghanaian scientists to be at the forefront in exploring and managing our numerous natural resources. Our own scientists must lead the way and take full charge of our national developmental agenda.

For this to be realised, our attitudes must change at all levels of society. Government, academic institutions and the general public must acknowledge the importance of science and technology in national development and must accept that Ghanaian scientists must build Ghana. Our scientists must also rise up to the challenges and demonstrate that they are capable of solving Ghana's problems.

There should come a time when we can pride ourselves as a nation by knowing for a fact that our infrastructure and other pillars of development were built by Ghanaian engineers. We can take medication for our ailments and appreciate that they were developed by Ghanaian scientists. And when asked, where our scientists are, we will be able to respond positively and proudly, and point to contributions they have made to our national development.

William Kofie DPhil MRSC
(Dr William Kofie is a research scientist, working in the area of drug discovery and development)

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