Nkrumah outmaneuvered the UGCC folks and the traditional authorities to usurp Power: with destructive consequences

 Nkrumah outmaneuvered the UGCC folks and the traditional authorities to usurp Power: with destructive consequences

 

I have been seriously thinking about the way Nkrumah outmaneuvered the UGCC folks and the traditional authorities. I think the newly independent Ghana should have first amalgamated the traditional authorities into a " supreme national council". And not sidelined them, which appears to be the basis of all the chaos and corruption the nation suffers till today. The structure of government is shaped like a colonial authority, hence there is a persistent rebellion and sabotage against the state. Nkrumah should not have imprisoned so many people right after the liberation struggle.

 

Remember the song "Mr. Jailer" by Asa?

 

The rampant imprisonment caused all the unfortunate turmoil the nation has suffered. So, it’s vital that we avoid tendencies of tyranny and self-interest and embrace collective interest and liberty for all. We should be a nation that negotiates our differences and builds consensus even in the face of persistent disagreement. The people who falsely support the record of Nkrumah describe his opponents as "usurper" and "traitors". Don't these words rather describe the actions and choices of Nkrumah himself in the independence struggle? After he usurped the power, he forgot how much of a usurper and a traitor he had been and was imprisoning everyone who reminded him of himself.

 

Also, the traditional authorities also resisted the colonialists to a large extent, preventing them from taking over our lands unlike in East and Southern Africa. Then they are sidelined. How about the traditional system that existed before the colonial period? It's about us upholding our traditions. They are still not going away anytime soon like it's been done in Germany and France. So, we need to find a way to integrate. Otherwise the distortion will continue to hurt.

 

Let's also challenge the idea that Nkrumah had to build a state from scratch. This is wrong. Ghana was not formed like the Caribbean states which were made up mainly of settlers and "slaves". There were states based on ethnicity and origin, these smaller states with their armies and land have been brought together by a colonial visitor. Nkrumah needed to respect the origins of the people and craft a new "multi-national and multi-ethnic" state that was at peace with itself and was not forced to follow the global style.

 

In the long-term great leadership conquers time. Weak leadership succumbs to time. Nkrumah proved to be the leader in the moment. Over time the choices have come full cycle and the results are not good. Nature is the greatest force of the realm. One person cannot feel so important to assume every pivotal role in society.

 

Nkrumah alone was:1. The Chancellor of the University of Ghana. 2. President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. 3. Able sacked the first Chief Justice of the land Arko Korsah. 4. Able to destool a Chief in Akyem and Installed himself a Chief there. 5. He had earlier created CPP to dribble the UGCC out of position. Once he became president, he was busily using Ghana's resources to fight for independence for the continent. Whether the people of Ghana wanted their economic resources used in that manner was not important to him. The new nation Ghana was mainly dependent on cocoa and once cocoa prices crashed; the republic began to stagger. Not to mention the many citizens who were jailed for dissent. He forgot that it took the whole nation to fight for freedom and it was not to replace one oppressor for the other. Great leadership needs to embrace dissent and negotiate. Being a leader does not mean one possesses all that is great in that society. Many others can do the same and even do better. Leadership is about building a society where the greatness of all citizens can be achieved. Either you try that, or time will expose you.

 

I understand those who venerate Nkrumah for being an exceptional personality of the century. But we need to learn the whole truth. Ghana's history is biased in favour of Nkrumah will be revised with the whole truth. This recklessly delusional man wanted to be a global power with a nation of 4 million with life expectancy of 46 years. None of whom knew about how to split the atom, or build a steel boat or build a compass.

We owe it to our ancestors and our children to pursue the whole truth. My goal is not to celebrate him. That does not mean I don't see anything worth celebrating. The whole nation has been duped into being his praise choir so what difference will one person make? What Ghana is today is the product of the life and effort of Ghanaians, Nkrumah included. He did not create the nation for us we created it for ourselves and he play a key role. Let's educate the young ones right into thinking that life is a big collective effort, not sit back and worship mere mortals are messiahs.

In the end the people still have their lives in their hand and are struggling each day to make something of it. He didn’t need to struggle to build a great nation for the people but to lead the people to build great lives for themselves and make the nation great.

Breakthrough to end the great locust plagues on the horizon let’s remember to design processes for sustainability

 Breakthrough to end the great locust plagues on the horizon let’s remember to design processes for sustainability

 

As a scientist in a “developing country”, I am sometimes baffled by the many scientific breakthrough and the associated technologies that the so called “developed countries” relied on to make them great. Many of the core principles are so problematic that the scientists involved should have ruffled their invention to make its implementation free from calamitous outcomes. There are many such examples that I will not spend too much space and time to elaborate on but only list three: atomic energy, opioids and weedicides. Any invention that has massive coverage area and affects a high number of people should be studied for a generation before it is applied at scale. Especially when is it a radically new invention. We need 35 years or more to ensure that the world will not be burdened with spending so much more to deal with the unforeseen dangerous effects.

 

We need new areas of research that look at accelerating the course of time and the natural evolution to learn the what some of these dangerous unforeseen effects can be. That is if we cannot wait for a generation to deploy our new world saving technologies. I recently read on the huge amounts that the USA government was willing to spend to deal with the opioid crisis in addition to the lives damaged and lives lost. We needed to calculate carefully what the value of opioids have compared to the price that has to be paid for its dangerous side effects.

 

We are at the cusp of another technological leap to deal with the great locust plagues of the world. Some scientists have just published the discovery of the swarming pheromone, called 4-Vinylanisole, that is used by locusts to create their destructive super-organism to lay waste large tracts farmlands and forests. I am sure many companies are already carrying out field tests of possible solutions to solve the problem and cash in on the current plague in East Africa. While at it, let’s pulse and think hard about the environment and save the future ahead of time. It is possible. It is possible to design an innovation system around this situation that has not been used before. One that mimics how a newborn baby reimagines the world based on new realities and not the experiences of their ancestors alone.

 

Let’s get out of the economic-centric innovation system that is driven by profit and senseless competition. Many companies have rushed to profit only to be liquidated to pay off the damage done by their stupid ideas and toxic products. I know I promised to cite only three examples but the examples of asbestos and radium I recently watched on TV is still too powerful to ignore. The real value of innovation is to improve life in the long haul, we should therefore pick safety over specific and narrow range results. All results must be entered into the decision-making process with equal weight. True advancement should be like music, it should leave no pain. The bullish will retort, “no pain no gain”. Yes, there is pain in every gain but here the pain should be about enduring the problems long enough for the solution to be long lasting. Since nature invented water as the medium of life, there has not been any other to replace it. We now even look for water on far away planets as a sign of life. The pain should be about designing “powerful telescope versions” of innovation systems that are able to see far into the future as the telescopes are able to see far into the past to pick up red-shifted light of star when they first formed.

 

I do not have answers to the sustainability questions, but I can pose a few questions to see what others think:

 

1. Is it possible to avoid burning the trapped locusts and release smoke back into the environment that will interact with the genome of the locust to evolve a new pheromone in record time?

 

2. Is it possible to ensure that the system designed to kill the locust also has a mechanism to collect them to generate more profit?

 

3. Is it possible to use trapping systems that do not leave the remains of killed locusts on land to generate warning signals for developing larvae to switch behavior to avoid mass entrapment?

 

4. Is it possible to incorporate this new 4-Vinylanisole substance into a mobile unit that is able to nicely draw in the locust swarm and gently freeze them to death and prepared the collection for other uses?

 

5. Is it possible to create medium sized ships to draw the locusts out to sea and freeze them into animal feed, and leave useful insects on land untouched?

 

6. Is it possible to ensure that the production of the 4-Vinylanisole does not include processes that leave toxic residue for the environment?

 

7. Is it possible to trap all volatile emissions from the processing of the trapped locusts such that they can never escape into the environment to train and evolve the sensory systems of the new locusts?

 

I hope we will not be inpatient to push the emergency button to unleash the next human made catastrophe on this fragile earth.

 

 

Scientific papers:

 

Catching plague locusts with their own scent

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02264-x

 

4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone in locusts

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2610-4

Guo, X., Yu, Q., Chen, D. et al. 4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone in locusts. Nature (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2610-4

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Patrick Kobina Arthur (PhD),

parthur14@gmail.com

Ghana Must Pursue Industries of the Future: technology companies to power and drive the development agenda.

Ghana Must Pursue Industries of the Future: technology companies to power and drive the development agenda.

The future prosperity of Ghana and Africa will not rely on "gold, cocoa and timber". These were the industries of the 19th century. To progress we need industries of the future, industries of plenty ideas and little materials. "gold, cocoa and timber" these were industries of plenty materials and little ideas.

Using viruses in the ocean to create batteries of the future, Biomimicry as industrial scale processing (like making ceramic materials using the biochemical processes similar to those used to make seashells, etc). Look for a book call "Biorefinery". Africa's future is that of Biotechnology - for medicines, functional foods, advanced materials (like fungus made quantum dots for advanced optics), bio-inspired electronics and robotics, new generation computer applications development, etc. "gold, cocoa and timber" I say again is 19th century.

To succeed with the quest for industries of the future, there is the need to create new hub to house the technology culture that is needed for each specific idea to thrive. The example of "Silicon valley" is a powerful idea to provide the organizing principles.

Nkrumah's False Start

At independence Ghana and Nkrumah had a false start. The industrial plants sold to the country were overpriced and problematic. But speed and ambition meant that the critical assessments could not be done. So once the cocoa cash run dry due to world price collapsed the industrialization efforts halted.

Lessons : make the machines that make the track and the wheels on which your ambitions run on your own.

The 4th Republic has been running a 19th Century Economic model

We need a technology-led strategy for national development. The old economic model of export of unprocessed commodities, agric- and agro-processing based strategy will not take us far. How much cocoa, cashew and pineapples can we export to double our GDP in 10 years? With 5-10 high tech and biotech enterprises, we can more than double our GDP in a decade and that will fix all development deficits in a decade. This is what the Asian tigers did in semiconductor business and automation. Taiwan alone has GDP ten times bigger than that of Ghana, and it's land mass (36,193 km²) is smaller than the former Brong Ahafo region (39,557 km²) and population (24 million) of is less than that of Ghana (area 238,535 km² and 30 million people). 28 years of the 4th republic has run on a 19th century economic model, 2021 and beyond let's think differently and turn to some 21st century ideas.

Technology companies to power and drive the

development agenda

Let's look at 10 technological companies that can take Ghana to the next level using the best of artificial intelligence and blockchain techniques to maintain competitive edge. The choice of industries is based on the model that a company garner market value beyond the 100 billion mark in 20 years of operation. If all goes well, in 20 years all our 10 companies should garner a combined market value of 1 trillion dollars that is 22 times the size of the current economy. At the current growth rates using the economic model with annual growth rate of even 10% (which is not likely), the economy will grow to 309 billion dollars in 2040 from the current 45 billion in 2020. We can easily be a 1309 billion dollar economy if we decide to target high value technological advanced industries.

01. Advanced Health Services Company:

Ghana can take advantage of the great number of medical schools in the country to establish a technologically advanced medical centre that can rival any around the world. First it can provide a cost effective alternative to Africans seeking medical attention outside the continent.

02. Pharmaceutical and Nanomedicine Company:

Medicines are expensive and Ghana has a decent set of components for a successful world leading pharma company to play with the big boys. Setting up a pharma hub around one pharma giant in Ghana will prove useful in getting a company that can garner market value beyond the 100 billion mark in 20 years of operation.

03. Electric Vehicle and Smart Logistics Company:

Mobility is a huge industry that is patronized by the masses, unlike the current situation where the nation has no stake in vehicle production. The future economy will not be stable without a local company. Vehicles operating autonomously will be much more expensive which cannot be left to foreign companies to profit from leading to significant capital flight and job losses.

04. Solar Power and Smart Grid Company:

The question of renewable energy is going to be more critical in the future when hydrocarbon resources have been exhausted. Nations will struggle to develop the capacity to build their own energy system. We are not going to be able to easily but production systems off the shelve. We need to get started now and main to play in the African market.

05. Semiconductor - Superconductor Materials Company:

Research around the work is very close to attaining superconductivity at high temperatures. It is highly that the materials that will be discovered to have superconductivity will end up being impossible to be produced at scale. We can also get involved pursue an approach that suits our high temperature and humidity environment and with a consideration for the limits of mineral deposits in the world. And get ahead of the curve and even explore materials such as graphene and modified versions of it. This how we are going to maintain a significant share of the 21st century technological value.

06. Electronics Component and Telecom Company:

All developed nations have achieved economic success on the back of electronic companies. These companies also create the engineering ecosystems that drive many other industries. By fusing an electronics company with a telecommunication will be strategic for the 21st century challenge of mastering communications and information technology from hardware and software. We can take a radical step and hold off 5G installation until we have built this type of company to be able to implement 5G in Ghana. Apart from securing the economic dividend, we also take control of the security of our network with local engineers who truly understand the systems, because they built from ground up.

07. Precision and Personalized Medicine Company:

This type of medicine is going to displace the current model of healthcare. The requirements for technology and sophistication will be enormous. Starting to create the institutions required now will make Ghana ready for the prime time. Once the world gets into this era of medicine, getting started will be extremely expensive and will lead to the importation of technological solution that will constrain economic growth even further. Unlike the current model of medicine which relies on supplies can be ship from long distances, personalized and precision medicine has to be local due genetics and the nature of cells and tissues that will be engineered to provide treatments of the future. Getting started now will allow Ghana to develop robust technologies for nations that will require them and save the nation from paying a huge cost.

08. Rocket and AeroSpace Technologies Company:

Space technologies have a way to catalyze advancements in other fields through inspiration and training. We will need a space programme to ensure other technological enterprises succeed.

09. Manufacturing and Laser Equipment Company:

In the era of AI, robotics, nanotechnologies, manufacturing equipment will be the new personal appliances. The specializations will grow more complex as they need to be designed to tackle highly specialized. No nation can develop any viable technological company without operating in this space.

10. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Company:

The era of harnessing biological systems to produce functional materials and new medicines makes it an imperative to have a big player in the field. Biotechnology companies are always profitable and make several high end components and materials that are critical to other technological companies. In the future the place for biotech will be even more critical and building institution to operate at scale will be critical to national resilience.

-----------------------------------

Patrick Kobina Arthur (PhD),

parthur14@gmail.com

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Agenda for Happiness: My Manifesto Proposals for 2020 Elections

The political season is here again and I am thinking of writing development proposals for political manifestos.

Unlike 2016 where I wrote only on Science and technology.  This time I am thinking of writing on 5 other topics.

The urgency brought upon us by the Covid-19 pandemia changes the settings within which development is discussed.  

We need a new narrative about development that is no longer about economics, finance and politics. The new narrative should be about happiness. 

The agenda for 2021 and beyond should be: 

Development of Happiness. 

The Agenda for Happiness. 

Happy Times 

Happiness covers everything from politics, economics, technology to justice and others. It's not that complicated. A narrative about happiness is one that is holistic and all encompassing.

 It is an agenda that resonates with people. In times of great crises the only agenda is to return to happiness. Timeless Happiness with Dignity.

The 5 topics I plan to write on are:

1. The sanitation fix

2. The flooding fix

3. Modern markets

4. Education for everyone 

5. Industrial expansion 

We can all remember that during this tragic pandemia, we have witnessed racism in its ugly form. While we are all outraged and passionate about ending racism. I am more passionate about development and liberty. It is the absence of development that permits evil deeds like racism, imperialism, colonialism, wars, economic domination, religious and superstitious killings occur.

#trueHappiness

#developmentandliberty 

#lastinghappinessinDignity 

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Straight to 21st Century Research Fund Scheme for Ghana: A review of the Ghana National Research Fund Bill, 2019

Straight to 21^st Century Research Fund Scheme for Ghana: A review of the Ghana National Research Fund Bill, 2019

 

This writing covers points of concerns and additional recommendations on the new Ghana National Research Fund Bill, 2019. In 2016 I made the effort to contribute my input to the development of the NPP Campaign Manifesto on the science and technology section. I have therefore campaigned for the drafting of the National Research Fund Bill with the hope that it will capture the critical ideas I shared in my memo to the then Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. The draft bill is finally here, and I am quite disappointed that it did not capture the essence of the NPP Manifesto promises made in the 2016 Elections.  The least the drafters could have done was to capture the entire concept from the manifesto and then add more features to make it compatible with current global trends and the needs of 21^st Century economy. As it is now, I feel it captures only 30% of the concept and leaves a large space for improvement. When it comes to the issue of research, science and technology, no country can afford to use outdated schemes to administer its programme. There is the need to commence operation with a modern 21^st century world class concept to attract the best from the people of Ghana both home and abroad.

 

NPP Science, Technology, Innovation and Tertiary Education Policy – 

2016-2020: Memo by Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur

https://pakar1-corner.blogspot.com/2020/06/npp-science-technology-innovation-and.html

 

Ghana National Research Fund Bill, 2019

https://www.parliament.gh/epanel/docs/bills/Ghana%20National%20Research%20fund%20Bill,%202019(1).pdf#viewer.action=download

 

 

Below are the point by point review of concerns:

 

Point 1

 

1. (a) provide financial resources to support, promote and

publicise research, technology generation and innovation

in the tertiary and research institutions specified in the First

Schedule;

 

Not all the important research has to be publicized.

Example is funding to small business/research-based organizations working on proprietary technology with globally competitive outcomes, which has the potential to boost the national economy. All major National Research Funds across the world do this.

 

Point 2

 

3. (a) seed money of fifty million Ghana Cedis specifically

allocated for the start-up of the Fund;

 

In November 2017, the Minister of Education announced that the seed fund of 50 million dollars had been approved by cabinet. How did the currency change to Ghana Cedis in this draft bill?

 

Point 3

5. (1) The governing body of the Fund is a Board consisting

   

      (a) a chairperson;

      (b) the Administrator of the Fund;

 

Persons appointed to this role should be people with proven track record in research and are internationally recognized for winning international grants to bring to the job international best practice and also sound scientific leadership.

 

Point 4

(2) The members of the Board shall be appointed by the President

      in accordance with article 70 of the Constitution.

 

It is important to have representation on the governing board by organizations such as Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, CSIR, UTAG, TUTAG, Vice Chancellors Ghana and equivalent from TUs. To ensure independent advice and direction free from political influence.

 

Point 5

7. (1) A member of the Board shall hold office for a period of three

years and is eligible for re-appointment, but a member shall not be

appointed for more than two terms.

 

The tenure of three years is too short. NIH Director has been in office from 2009 to 2017 and was re-appointed to continue. NIH is the major research fund administration in the USA. There is a merit to directors having longer stay in office.

 

 

Point 6

Ministerial directives

13. The Minister may give policy directives consistent with the object

of this Act to the Board and the Board shall comply.

 

To prevent short-term interruptions of the operational vision of the GNRF, the Board should rely on operational guidelines which are crafted every ten years and subject to parliamentary approval and not short-term ministerial directives. They should also have a mechanism to respond to events such as outbreaks, etc. to modify its operational guidelines without the influence of the sitting minister.

 

Point 7

Appointment of Administrator

16. (1) The President shall, in accordance with article 195 of the

Constitution, appoint an Administrator for the Fund.

 

Subject to Point 3: That is a person with proven track record in research and are internationally recognized for winning international grants to bring to the job international best practice and also sound scientific leadership.

 

 

Point 8

Appointment of Deputy Administrator

18. (1) The President shall, in accordance with article 195 of the

Constitution, appoint a Deputy Administrator for the Fund.

 

Subject to Point 3 That is a person with proven track record in research and are internationally recognized for winning international grants to bring to the job international best practice and also sound scientific leadership.

 

 

 

Point 9

22. For the purpose of achieving the object of the Fund, the Board

shall apply

 

The percentage of fund allotted to different disciplines should be left open to the discretion and the results of the needs assessment exercise conducted by the board from time to time. Fixed percentages to the different discipline will lead to uncompetitive outcomes.

 

 

Point 10

 

Eligibility for funding

28. (1) A person qualifies to apply for funding for research if that

person

(a) is a citizen of Ghana;

 

All over the world, research funding is offered to all researchers who are employed by national institutions. The issue of being in the employment of the national institution is key and not the citizenship of the researcher. There are many Ghanaian researchers holding Ghanaian passports who work in other countries and are eligible to apply for and win research funding in those countries.

 

 

Point 11

 

The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make Regulations

for the effective implementation of this Act.

 

The GNRF should be given operational independence and not be subject to the strings of the minister to ensure that highest professional competence and leadership is obtained in the national interest.

 

Additional Recommendations:

 

1. The GNRF must create a PhD fellowship programme with immediate effect after commencing operations to select brilliant students from the undergraduate programme to ensure that high caliber of talent is retained in the country. The absence of such a programme has driven many of the brightest of Ghana’s youth abroad many of whom never return to the country. The fellows will be distributed among the departments and unit offering graduate programmes in collaborations with research institutes. Fellows should be provided with competitive travel award to gain international experience during the time of their fellowship.

 

2. In keeping with talent development agenda, Postdoctoral and Senior fellowship programmes should be created for early and mid-career researchers in line with international trends. This will ensure the necessary capacity building to drive institutional advancement and economic development in Ghana.

 

3. The GNRF must as a strategic development create a high end, shared core technology facilities covering several key areas of research and development. Core facilities are modern approaches of driving research by clustering high end equipment in a single location to be given the best of everything, which is not possible in a distributed system. This will ensure maximum usage and constant care, attention and innovation. Core facilities such as chemical analysis core, bioimaging core, genome sequencing core, engineering design core, Physical lab core, IT core, etc. These core facilities will be provided with dedicated funding and supervision by the GNRF board and the host institutions to support the needs of the research communities in Ghana.

 

4. Special funding scheme for multi-disciplinary research programmes target big challenges like locust invasion, endemic diseases, waste management, flooding, etc. A scheme of this nature will draw all the expertise needed to use the power of graduate training and research to deal with complex problems and derive outcomes such as a sustainable breakthroughs and management systems which can be established as enterprises beyond the term of the research programmes.

 

5. Funding schemes for private small business to conduct research and development activities. Research funding should not be targeted at training, education and knowledge generation outcomes only. The outcomes should include industrial production and services to drive economic development and employment creation. The Grand Challenges model of funding can be employed for this scheme based on a four phased approach with increasing funding offer from phase 1 to 4. Phase 1 is typical – proof of concept; Phase 2 – transition to scale; Phase 3 – Low-medium scale operation; Phase 4 – large scale operation. The funding offering can be a mixture of grant, loan and equity.

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