MTN Hitmaker Show has succeeded for Ghana Music, Now do same for Ghana Science and Technology

MTN Hitmaker Show has succeeded for Ghana Music, Now do same for Ghana Science and Technology

Last week, first of December 2018, I chanced on the finals of the popular MTN hitmaker show  for 2018. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of the current top stars in Ghana music have been previous winners and finalists of the this show. This is a great credit to those who first came up with the concept of the show and it's implementation plan. Compared to the other previous shows musical talent hunt, this MTN hitmaker show has been relatively successful in producing top stars who are gradually featuring on the African and global stage.

It is always important to take what works in one field and scale it across multiple fields. The Telcom business is one that has the most robust growth trajectory in Ghana and is less exposure to the stresses that other businesses experience. On the other hand, Telcos are epic technology companies that should be well positioned to appreciate and drive the growth of the science and technology sector in every country.

In a country like Ghana, where both the popular culture and the culture of government have always seem oblivious to the requirements for growth in science and technology in the development. It behooves a technology company like MTN to pursue the development of science and technology as the core of it corporate social responsibility activities. The core business of MTN and other telcos and the calibre of the people they employ seamlessly align with the culture of science and technology.

Going forward we in the science and technology community in Ghana will be glad to see a balance in the portfolio of activities sponsored by MTN and other telcos. It is important that this company steps into the leadership and resource gap. And drive the growth and expansion of the science and technology sector to give hope to neglected budding scientists of the diverse fields. Scientists whose only hope is the funding from agencies outside the country that are narrowly focussed and not designed to truly build the total capacity of all the scientists in Ghana. 

I am aware of the MTN apps challenge but there many areas of science and technology and tools beyond apps and fintech that needs sponsorship. These diverse fields can be empowered as part of the package for CSR projects that are meant to touch the people more directly. A team of scientists and engineers can be supported by MTN to develop and build livelihood systems as a way of supporting local R&D while provide development assistance to deprived communities. This in the end creates an ecosystem of win-win for many sectors and achieve a lasting development for Ghana.

Good science is also like good music, when it hits you, it leaves no pain. (To paraphrase Bob Marley). MTN hitmaker has made it work for Ghana Music with the discovery of artistes like Kuami Eugene, Kidi, Kurl Songs, Krymi, Freda Rhymes, etc. The same youthful energy and creative brilliance exist for science and technology that needs work to make hits after hits.

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Three years have passed AND still NO Ghana Research Fund in the national budget

We all actively campaigned for change of government in the months leading to the December 7 2016 elections. The scale of public policy offers being made by the then NPP party in opposition projected a sense of hope for Ghana. Upon assumption of office President Akufo Addo stated that a research fund will be established for Ghana that will target 1% GDP immediately and raise the amount to 2.5% of GDP in the near term.

Many of us felt that the new era we hoped for had finally arrived. And that Ghana has finally got a fine chance of joining the league of science nations. And that makes a lot of sense judging from the number of world class scientific talent both home and abroad. Talent pool that can create the same economic success that countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore had achieved over a short period of 30 years.

I was in the audience at the La Palm Royal hotel in November 2017 during the World Bank's ACE workshop when the Education minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh stated that 50 million dollars seed fund had been set aside. I was quick to post this great news on facebook and went on to claim that I was the first to broadcast the good news much to the delight of my facebook friends. The same was wildly published in the Ghanaian media that week. To our utter shock, the fund was not mentioned in the 2018 national budget that was published shortly after the workshop.

We kept our calm waiting for 2019 to see whether, the President will follow his pronouncements with action. Here again, the word "research" does not even appear in the 2019 budget of 170 pages. That is sad enough not to mention the total absence of the phrase "research fund". The closest words of "science" and "innovation" came up few times in reference to existing institutions like NEIP and MEST. I feel sad for Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, a world's most renowned scientist and surgeon, for the situation he finds himself. In the midst of a government that is impervious to the reason. He has said all that needs to be said about development and science. His life is an example enough to pursued any leader removed from reality of the power of science to know better and to do better. The fact that he has not been successful at this task and come across as being hopeful the same way all of us ordinary scientists without high office raise big questions. Very big questions regarding the basis of all the statements the NPP made on Science and tech as being simply dubious and deceitful.

Should we gave up on Ghana Science? NO! We will not give them our hope. We will hold on to it. And do the best our talent will allow us. We have survived the past decade and more in science because that are science funders out there in the world who value Science enough to cross borders and provide assistance to us. The charge to me is for us as the science research community in Ghana to organize our efforts and transform them into a few key enterprises and compete globally. The next decade should not end without an original Ghanaian Science and Tech enterprise emerging not only to be profitable but also set up a foundation to fund science research in Ghana. Stepping in to provide true leadership and valuable support like Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust are doing across the world.

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Ghana is still a "virtual" nation in search of a soul, a form and an identity: Of the founder, the founders and the founders yet-to-be

Nkrumah should have pursued the path of engagement and consensus building in the new Ghana rather than jailing all dissenters. He formed CPP out of dissent with the UGCC. So why prohibit others from doing the same? Unifying different groups of people into a new nation, groups that we earlier waring and fleeing from wars, will take some huge form of consensus building. By jailing everyone, he twisted the fate of this country and set forth the cycles of chaos initiated by Kotoka the first coup maker in Ghana. We are still not out of the woods yet after some 65 years of this national experiment. Those who were alive at the time of the overthrow of Nkrumah do remember scenes of jubilation across the country. This was due to the many influential people that had been jailed by Nkrumah through the many draconian laws. This included many of his seniors he had dissented with earlier in the struggle toward independence namely JB Danquah.

The many acts of corruption in public office is largely due to the continued feuding of the factions that have been forced to form the nation Ghana. The persistent lack of consensus of the national character makes the conditions of mutual respect and collective progress unworkable. Ghana is a nation in search of a soul. National identity has eluded us for 65 years and we are still not sure when this disaster will end.

To make progress, we need to return to the negotiation table and craft a carter for the real Ghana we want to have going forward. We need to first unify our family systems that formed the basis of amorphous and metaphorizing traditional societies. The next key milestone will be unifying our traditional authority systems and transform the same into state authority and government. We cannot achieve true democracy using principles and concepts that emanate from societies whose character and histories we do not share and will struggle to our collective detriment to emulate.

To build a prosperous nation also means that we need to device a new governance structure and system after our own likeness, collective likeness. Otherwise every Ghanaian will continue to treat the nation as the proverb "transit point" that share very little in character with our different origins and different destinations. To have a nation that is crafted in our likeness, it ought to be first and foremost be both our revered origins and treasured destiny.

That said Kotoka should continue to receive national honors in the face of our continued search for national identity. We cannot honor people who used violence to settle disputes. It is not an example we want to uphold for future generations to emulate. The time is ripe for the Kotoka International Airport to changed to honor a person who embodies the future of global significance that the nation will need to establish itself truly to its core. The man Kofi Annan has ticked all the boxes as that global Ghanaian Icon who represents the face of Ghana to the world.

After the question of soul, form and identity is properly answered, we will realized that Ghana and indeed most of the countries in Africa possess all the useful ingredients to flourish as a modern state. We need to prohibit the migration of our best talents to the outside world. Talent is a finite resource although it is renewable, however we cannot continue the current of talent development by allowing the highest form professional development to be attainable only outside the country and people are left of their own out there to build other peoples' countries for them. As a urgency we need every Ghanaian home or at least part of their professional time home. It is a good time that ROPA is going into effect in 2020. We need to think hard about evolving structures and systems that brings every Ghanaian everywhere to the development challenge. We also need strong institution of higher learning learning to spearhead the create 21st century competitiveness right here. Ours ought to be a nation of high achievements. Building great monuments to our national life to be visible in thousand years and beyond.

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Free-SHS and the urgency of youth training in Ghana

Free-SHS and the urgency of youth training in Ghana

The victory for the NPP in 2016 was important for many reasons. The free-SHS policy clearly shows that this victory was a timely positive change. But for this free-SHS policy, the number of youth dying in Libya and the mediterranean sea would have soared. What would have been the fate of these 170,000 young people who have now been provided with SHS education? We have had an educational system that ignored 40% of the youth intentionally. The NDC government of the 2009 to 2016 was inept in its approach to many issues of national importance. They only played games with important educational policies and merely made a lot of noise about the little they did after so much delay.

Now that many of the key issues affecting the free SHS policy have been solved, it is time to look further forward and do more. I think we can go a step further and develop a system for continuing education for the SHS level. Where those who missed SHS and those who did not pass can get back on track and pass some courses. And make use of weekend schooling and distance learning to gain degree level training. We cannot ignore providing them a route back into education after ignoring them to drop out. We have a situation where hundreds and thousands of these young people who dropped out of school are still in their youth, and they can be provided with education. Most of them can pay for themselves and so what we need to do is to device a new system to help them.

A flexible system that does not overload the students with too many courses but one that allows them to pick the number they are capable of passing. And repeating this over a number of years until they have passed all the subjects to qualify for their desired tertiary courses. The demographic and advanced skill dividend the nation stands to gain will be staggering. We need a positive attitude and a tenacious work ethic to make this happen. Education provides citizens with the liberty to succeed in life and that is crucial for national development.

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IDEAS FROM PEERS ACROSS THE WORLD ABOUT HOW TO DO WELL IN GRADUATE SCHOOL AND MEET EXPECTATIONS OF YOUR SUPERVISOR

IDEAS FROM PEERS ACROSS THE WORLD ABOUT HOW TO DO WELL IN GRADUATE SCHOOL AND MEET EXPECTATIONS OF YOUR SUPERVISOR

The ideal goal of every graduate or prospective graduate student is to generate results that boost his/her smooth transition to the next level of their research and academic career. Such transitions should always reconcile with their natural progression towards an outstanding performance with international credibility. In meeting these expectations, right personal attitudes, sacrifice, good laboratory and research practices and experiences are key to meeting deadlines in the graduate schools coupled with generating excellent results.

However, far from these expectations, not all planned experiments work out as expected which could result from poor attitude to work, poor skills, protocols not well optimized, minor mistakes, poor supervision, poor laboratory and experimental set up. These brain-wrecking scenarios of not getting the expected results requires the input of corrective and preventive laboratory practices to save time, energy and resources.

Whilst attending and participating in international science conferences and workshops, a number of graduate students from diverse national and academic backgrounds were interviewed on how to meet the expectations of an academic supervisor in the graduate school. It was reiterated by several students on the negative feeling associated with failing to produce expected results and this makes one deviate from the expectations of a supervisor. Hence the best way out is to learn from mistakes and perfect one’s skill sets. A good number of the students suggested that fellow graduate students should not overlook their mistakes during experiments but note them in the lab notebook and seek for corrective measures by engaging their Principal Investigators (PIs). In this wise, experimental failures should be documented and corrected otherwise, one may not be able join a different lab to develop further, which would affect a persistent research output. Others stressed that no student should wish to be the cause of their low research output, so it is better the fundamentals relevant to the study are learnt and applied rightly.

In instances where post-doctorate fellows are micromanaging graduate students, some suggested it is necessary graduate students constantly seek guidance from post-doctorate fellows. Others laid emphasis on the fact that the integrity of their research is hugely affected at the least experimental failure, so research guidance should be constantly sought. Since adherence to optimized lab protocols is paramount to generating excellent results, some international graduate students suggested that it would be very appropriate for one to familiarize with the culture of the lab designed by the PI and fit in as a team player. Further to this, in events when a graduate student is under-performing because there is a weakness or lacking skill set that should be complemented by rightly pairing with another student to learn.

The 21 keys points have been stated below for quick reference:

1. Take notes of your mistakes and try not to repeat
2. It is not a good feeling to fail in an experiment, so I learn from mistakes
3. Discuss with the PI on corrective measures
4. Report to the PI on how to get things right whenever something goes wrong
5. No student wants to be in such a situation, so it is better to get the fundamentals right
6. It feels bad and one has to learn to do better
7. Seek help from the post-docs who are micromanaging in the lab
8. One would need to sit up and ask for help. Maybe one needs help somewhere
9. Schedule a meeting with the PI and discuss it
10. It affects the integrity of the research, so one will have to request for guidance
11. It will be nice for one to follow the lab protocol
12. Discuss with PI to get the wrong attitudes fixed
13. Maybe one needs the right training, so one will have to ask for the right training
14. It should be a good decision to make things right so that one can complete the research on time
15. It is more important to understand the lab protocol and practices
16.  One needs to work harder to improve lab skills
17. One has to take notes of attitudes and discuss them with the PI
18. Record what went wrong always, seek for corrective measures with PI and keep it up next time to get the right results
19. There may be an area of weakness one needs support in.
20. Note down one’s failures in the lab and correct them. Otherwise one may have to leave the lab, and this would affect your research output
21. Try to fit into the culture of the lab designed by the PI

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Written by Isaac Carilo
Reviewed and Edited by Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur