When I started my abandoned MPhil program , we were in the same class with PhD students because we were all in year one.
We were told there is a certain problem in Ghana with money kufuuuu available for whoever is willing to solve it. We were told any PhD candidate willing to pick up that challenge should see the HOD for details.
The problem is this: There are so many pipe (water) leakages in Ghana.
In Wamfie, for instance, when a pipe leaks and we don’t find Alukube Plumbing, water will go waste for days because no one from the Ghana Water Company knows there is a leakage at Wamfie Zongo.
I experienced a similar thing in Ayigya, Kumasi. Pipes can leak for days because many times the actual people responsible for fixing it will not be aware there is such leakage in some deep parts of the town.
There is funding for anyone who wants to research and find an AI system that will be able to automatically detect leakage and give a signal anytime there is such a water leakage.
For instance, assuming Alukube works for Ghana Water Company, we would not have to call him. He would get a notification on his phone automatically that there is a water leakage at Kumajemere.
And this money I’m talking about, I don’t mean some 1000 or 2000 or 10,000 pounds ooo.
It is whatever you can prove you need to solve the problem. If you can prove you need a V8 car to solve it, they will buy it for you. If you can prove you need 100 pieces of laptop, they will buy them for you.
Your work is to eat, sleep, wake up, research. Eat, sleep, wake up, research. For 3 or 4 or 5 years.
By the time this person finishes, they might even have job offers from the international community. Because the funding for this work is even from the international community, not the Ghana Water Company. And they will not be happy for that person to be walking about wasting the knowledge acquired in 5 years.
Like KO FI argued, let’s go to this person’s graduation ceremony and provide them with two options, from which they can pick only one.
Option 1: We are stripping you of your PhD certificate and giving you a Dutch passport.
Option 2: Keep your PhD certificate and you will never get a Dutch passport.
Which one would you settle on if you were the one?
And that is even a PhD holder who has just completed his program.
——— add below to the post… at the appropriate location
I remember 2017 there about. There was a project and a certain PhD holder bi was the lead. Me derr, na abi bag holder keke.
If I get tired holding the bag, he go say “Go to Obuasi Enyinam Lodge and sleep for a week. If you sleep in a hotel in Kumasi here they will still disturb you with calls so go to Obuasi”
That was even the reward of an ordinary man oo, Amadu Zabarma son, a bag holder.
Haaajala, you people make lucky say ano get Master’s sef, like this matter? Agye se court. Anka me twe no tentannn.
I think the statement “PhD holder” kind of create impression like they are students or some recent graduates.
If you say “PhD Holder” you are referring to Research Scientist, Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Associate Professors, and the Full Professors.
If you say “PhD Holder”, you are referring to Vice chancellors, Provosts, Deans, HOD, etc.
Check board compositions in Ghana and you will see the number of Professors on those boards. They (professors on those boards) are all/mostly PhD holders.
Anytime you see on your TV screen someone comes with the title Dr (not medical), then the person is a “PhD Holder”.
That is the category the Dutch man is talking about.
What “better life” can you live in abroad as an ordinary man like me that is better than what they are living in Ghana? What better life can the son of Amadu Zabarma enjoy here that Prof Gyambo of UG can not? or the current running mate of NDC, Prof Nana was not enjoying before she entered politics?
Even limit it to Dormaa East, what at all can you “show” Prof Sarfo because you have a Dutch passport?