…As engineers and other technocrats introduce ‘Peduase Declaration’.
Ghana’s media, has been urged to take up a frontline role in the country’s quest to bridge the technology gap — as it prepares to be a relevant force in the West African sub-region and beyond.
The call came during a media engagement hosted by the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), last Wednesday, April 3rd 2019.
The conference was held to deliberate on developing domestic capacity so as to bridge the technology gap, in order to realize the ‘Ghana beyond aid’ agenda — as well as facilitate youth employment in the country. The occasion was also used to introduce the ‘Peduase Declaration‘; a communique developed from a previous conference, geared toward creating an ecosystem for training and mentoring young scientists, technologists, and engineers to help build a sustainable economy in the country — to the media.
In his opening address, chairman of the conference, and Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng remarked that the poverty gap is a direct consequence of the technology gap. He observed, that there was no country that has developed into a world leader without first developing the ability to create and utilize technology to its advantage.
A former president of the Institution, Ing. Dr Kwame Boakye spoke on the need to nurture tech entrepreneurs who would drive the agenda. He intimated that the Ghana Institution of Engineering, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation in partnership with other stakeholders would establish Technology Design and Manufacturing Centres (TDMCs).
These centres, which would be established across the country to bridge the technology gap, would support research institutions, universities and industry via the deployment and active use of technology. Also, the centres would serve as the hub for innovators who need investment to put their inventions into the production stage, or for further research and development.
On the panel to discuss solutions proffered at the Peduase Conference were Mr Kwesi Pratt Jr, Dr Joe Cruickshank, Dr Lucy Agyepong, and Ing. Dr Kwame Boakye.
Mr Pratt Jr, whose provocative article sparked these related events emphasized the need for more media engagement in Ghana’s technological quest. He noted that while engineering cannot be said to be the answer to all issues, there’s no solution to any problem that does not involve some level of engineering. He said that in order for Ghana to be able to make a difference that benefits itself, innovation is the way forward.
For his part, Dr Cruickshank spoke on the need for local capacity development sections to be included in agreements signed with multinational and manufacturing companies that set up businesses here. He bemoaned the situation where companies pack up and leave with the core part of their technology remaining hidden to the locals they worked with.
Dr Agyepong, a technology manager with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), said having the Technology Design and Manufacturing Centres to bridge the gap between academia and industry would support and enable SMEs to increase productivity. She spoke of the need for an enabling environment that would support the development and demonstration of new technologies from small scale to industrial scale.
In a closing remark, Dr Fred McBagonluri, president of Academic City College challenged the country’s universities to help address youth unemployment by promoting enterprises that are collapsing — citing the success story of how Moi University, in Kenya, has revamped the country’s textile industry.
Government’s undue interference in Engineering and the engineering process remains the sole reason for technology backwardness and lack of development. The practice of making Ingeniers apprentices of foreign technologies and Ingeniers is fake engineering and incorrect, professionally and holistically speaking. This is a direct copy of the medical model without knowing that the Philosophy of Engineering is not the same as the Philosophy of Medicine.
Ingenier means ‘Brainworker’, as opposed to and different from handworkers. They are administrative inventors. All you need to do is tell your Ingenier what you need and hands-off. He determines how to go about it and brings the product as final result to you. Direct award of engineering projects and duties as contracts to local and foreign contractors without passing through local Ingeniers is systemically incorrect and abuse of profession.
We do these things out of the ignorance that our Ingeniers have never done these things before and need to ‘under study’ their foreign counterparts to gain the requisite skills. As Ingeniers, you do things that you and/or any other person had never done. Ingeniers are professional innovators and inventors. If a thing had been done before, you don’t need Ingeniers to repeat it again. The foreign contractors undertaking engineering projects in Africa are neither Ingeniers nor doing any engineering but saddled/entrusted with engineering responsibilities. This explains why most of their jobs are too expensive and/or shoddy (sic) as well as the phenomena of abandoned projects and building collapses.
In Nigeria we say, “leave matter for Marthias”. Allow Ingeniers to do engineering! Continued interference with Engineering and engineering processes by non-Ingeniers, under any guise, is abuse of profession which is holistically and systemically incorrect.
This may sound funny but it should be known that underpaying Ingeniers will incapacitate them and the disparity of payment to Ingeniers in some African countries does make them underperform professionally.
Wrong job specification and allocation is another ill in engineering. We believe the roles of Ingeniers, Technologists, Technicians, Craftsmen, Tradesmen, and Artisans are and should be the same or Ingeniers should be able to fit into these subordinate roles seemlessly. This is wrong! It is also an unconscious copying of the medical model and adopting the German systems-culture without knowing it. No two countries practise engineering in exactly the same way. NASA in the USA is such that the different states host different centres and all dont practise engineering in exactly the same way. Ingenier are professional innovators and inventors who administer technology development. They do the brainwork and guide handworkers on how to use their handicrafts to implement/realize it. Our TR has not attained the level for us to adopt German systems-culture yet and note that Engineering is not viewed as graduate/degree programme in Germany but Polytechnic/diploma.
One other angle to this is fact that results dont lie. We had been doing these and/or similar things for well over sixty years but no good result has come out of it. For this reason alone, we should know we are doing wrong things. Our value for Philosophy (philus sophia – love of knowledge) will go a long way to make some of these things obvious to us.