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For faculty to support all these new universities, we will start the
programme to recruit retired Ghanaian professors abroad. Some
of them have good pensions and if we start a volunteer faculty,
Ghanaians all over the world who are teaching in other countries,
and who desire to be of use to Ghana will be coming home in order
to support this educational programme. What they will expect
from government is honest, transparent government. These
retired professors will start these universities and recruit locally
trained younger persons to replace them. It is the challenge of
nation building that will motivate them to do this.
Another source of funds to support productive programmes in
agriculture, education and balance the budget will be to cut down
the size of Government. Estimates from three different sources, on
the number of ministers desirable and appropriate for Ghana has
put the figure between 30 and 40 ministers and deputies, including
the regional ministers. The savings in the numbers of cars given to
ministers the trimmings in fuel, the reduction in maintenance and
reduction in corruption will be considerable.
At the tertiary level, Science, ICT, Creative Arts will be
encouraged. Pharmaceutical Sciences with emphasis on plant
medicine will be added so that we can add value to the numerous
herbs that people are using now. You know a lot of Ghanaians now
seek herbal treatment because they cannot afford the hospitals
even in addition to the National Health Insurance because they get
the prescription but they cannot afford the medication. So they
resort to herbs. Another source of potential funding will be the
income that we expect from the oil reserves (and the oil companies
have briefed some of us and said that late in 2010 we will be
exporting oil). It will be for parliament to create an Education
Trust to be managed as a mixed portfolio for grants, scholarships
and loans to deserving but needy students.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr of America said, “A brain is a terrible
thing to waste”. More so a Ghanaian brain. Therefore no Ghanaian
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brain should be wasted for lack of means to train and exploit that
intelligence.
About 1% of the national budget will be apportioned to a Research
and Development Fund to translate local research into practical
solutions to our problems and turn research into commercial
products and services. This should help local academic and
research institutions like CSIR, Noguchi the Universities etc.
Stakeholders in research such as the Association of Ghana
Industries will all have a say in the disbursement of this R & D
fund.
Girl-child education is also the route for women emancipation and
their removal from the poverty ranks. We will aim to make our
Government gender balanced: that is 50% of cabinet shall be
women. We believe in women (after all they are our mothers,
sisters or wives) and PNC demonstrated this belief in women in
1996 by the choice of a woman, Madam Dedo Mate of Somanya
as our Vice-Presidential candidate.
Health
Environmental sanitation and potable water for everyone in
Ghana are the building blocks for a healthy nation. To this end,
underground sewerage systems will be undertaken as part of our
malaria control efforts. Decentralising responsibilities to the
district assemblies so that they manage their local situation will
achieve far greater results in controlling parasitic infestations
such as guinea worm, hookworm etc. Districts may then be able
to entice doctors and nurses by offering incentives such as
accommodation or short term education abroad. A national
programme to retain doctors in the country will be initiated by
helping young graduates from the medical schools, especially at
the specialist level, to start their own practices in places like
Suhum that have the population base to support a small medical
practice. We will also do much to combat the thorny issue of
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