Ghana: Country Must Commit Itself to Science, Technology -Aliu

Sebastian R. FreikuKumasi
VICE PRESIDENT, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has stated that the government sees development of science and technology as an important ingredient that must be supported to speed up the nation's development efforts.
He has suggested that Ghana must commit itself to scientific research and technological development before the close of the 50th independence anniversary came to a close.
According to him, scientific research and technological development were fundamentally crucial to appreciable strides to be made for national development.
Veep Aliu has suggested the establishment of a Science and Technology Development Trust Fund on which the private entities would be made to contribute to the fund.
The Vice President made the suggestions as contained in a key note address read on his behalf by Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, during the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Research Staff Association (RSA) of CSIR in Kumasi.
The theme for the two-day meeting was; " Ghana@50: redefining the role of Science and Technology for National Development."
He said Ghana could not afford to waste the next 50 years without taking advantage of the benefits that scientific research and technological innovations brought to boost our development.
According to the Vice president, the government was seriously considering the option of establishing the fund to provide a sustainable source of funding for scientific research and technology development efforts for the national interest, which effort, he believed, would set Ghana on the path of advancing in science and technology to accelerate national development.
He pointed to the evidence of contribution of science and Technology to the development of nations like Malaysia and South Korea and said Ghana could also reach that stage if "We seriously commit ourselves to scientific research and technology development."
Alhaji Mahama Aliu indicated that without an injection of scientific and technological innovations into our programmes to deal with food, security, health and infrastructural developments, achieving a middle income status and confronting abject poverty could not be achieved within the next 15 years.
He said scientific research and technology development I was an expensive endeavour and required both high quality human resources and capital Investments. "Above all, it requires committed leadership and political will, especially when there is not always a guarantee that desired results and impacts can be seen or felt at the first, second or third attempts of exploration and experimentation," he said.
The Vice President assured that the government was systematically dealing with salary disparities and related issues which scientists had agitated against over the years.
Dr. B. N. Nuertey, President of the RSA, welcoming the participants drawn from all 13 research institutions to the AGM in Kumasi, said since 2004 researches of CSIR had been battling with the government to implement government's own decisions and recommendations contained in its own white paper concerning salaries and allowances between research scientists of CSIR and university lecturers.
Dr. Nuertey noted that that problem had persisted and survived three ministerial renaming from MEST to MES to MESS and through five ministerial appointments from Prof. Dominic Fobih through Prof. Kassim Kasanga, Christine Churcher, Paapa Owusu Ankomah and back to Prof. Fobih.
The RSA President further noted that any of the ministerial changes involved time to study the CSIR problem and therefore never got resolved.
He has therefore suggested the formulation of policies by the government to ensure continuous funding for development of science and technology to address the problem if Ghana was to attain the middle income status by 2015.
Mrs. Belinda Serwaa Addo, Regional Director of Education, who deputised for the sector minister, not that a redefined role of science and technology would lead to a more independent economy.
The minister stated that the government was negotiating with the leadership of CSIR over conditions of service and that it would cooperate with the institute to improve upon existing conditions.
He also announced that a proposal for the institution of a science and technology policy would be proposed to Cabinet for consideration.