Dominic Anarigide, an Economist and Ph.D candidate has made arguments in favour of research in furthering the development of the country.
Mr. Anarigide, speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show suggested that had the government valued research, one of their flagship agricultural programmes, One Village One Dam, would not be the white elephant it is today.
“The fact that I have research doesn’t mean I have the power to go and tell the government to do a, b or c. Research is what government has to rely on. In this country, we do not respect research. All over the world, they rely on research before any government would have any intervention.”
“If you look at 1V1D, 1D1F, it should have been backed by research. Research should have informed that policy because, as you all know, not every village in this region can have a dam. It is not every place that is suitable for a dam, but that was what was bundled around and nobody cared to talk about it.”
“If it was supported by research, you would know that okay, a certain area is suitable for a dam, another area is not suitable. This particular district is not suitable for a factory or it is suitable for a particular factory but not this kind of factory. Because it was not informed by research, today, we realize that those policies have not actually given us the expected results,” he said.
Mr. Anarigide’s comments were to support an earlier submission by a former Upper East Regional Minister and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Professor Avea Nsoh.
Professor Avea Nsoh has opined that, all things being equal, there should be a direct link between the number of people with Ph.Ds within a defined space and the development in that area, a position that was contested by the immediate past Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage.
Madam Abayage opined that development should be private sector-led.
The Upper East Region, according to the latest Population and Housing Census by the Ghana Statistical Service, has a total of 565 PhD holders.
According to the GSS 2021 PHC the Greater Accra Region has the highest with a total of 11454 PhD holders as of 2021. Second is Ashanti Region with 5157, the Central region had 3788, while Northern Region also had 1663.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
