That the nation should form a national Chaplaincy board comprising of seasoned ministers of God who could give accurate prophecies pertaining to every decision the government makes and would want to embark upon (at this juncture I hope our seminary institutions do not focus on only impacting knowledge regarding theology and divinity solely but instill specialist expertise knowledge in modern IT, business, finance, economics, agriculture, politics, governance and many more)with representations from Ghana and a some selected countries like Europe, USA, from Asia, South America, South Africa. We need both nationals and other (missionaries) nationals as well.
How they perform should determine how we keep them on the board. That is their tenure.
Our country beyond what we see happening should do a thorough planning into our future in terms of saving money and mobilising reserves down for the distant yet unborn generations. I for one believe the world would continue to be in existence for the next hundred years if our Creator does not change His plans.Hence the need to be curious and hungry for solutions to issues and there is the dire need to have fun and have it well in luxury.
We should identify some seasoned industry experts and folks from academia and form countless number of committees who are willing to sacrifice , do thorough research and grant free invaluable advice to the nation– these folks who would not be paid—to give more clearer suggestions as to how to tackle some of the situations confronting our nation, to make tangible predictions about what could occur in the future and how our yet unborn generations could live in comfort.
For instance it is a fact that most first year University of Ghana students commute from their homes —please not UG acquired out of campus residences— to the university’s campus everyday.
We should have planned long ago on how to resolve this issue—I mean entire Africa– about 5 to 10 years back ago we should have planned how to resolve this matter.
Anyway I discovered upon flipping through some top UK varsities brochures that oftentimes the varsities there could assist you as a student to get accommodation from some private residences and individuals in town and that outside their universities campuses.
Africans are very hospitable and we Ghanaians can do it better.
I feel we should suggest to the government to secure some funds and enter into negotiable talks with the present owners of the old Mamprobi estate houses to lease them and refurbish these buildings and make them available for the use for the University of Ghana student in the future if it is not possible now. Let us remember that the atmosphere in that vicinity is serene and would be a bit more conducive for students relaxation and out of campus studies.
Let us work a great deal to improve upon student satisfaction on our campuses as far as issues like water supply, theft on campus or in students residences, and assessment issues are concerned since it would have a positive bearing on our universities world rankings.
We should improve upon some other facilities on our campuses (much as we do have plans to establish more government universities) especially grant free access to the internet via PCs and wi- fi.
The internet has much more useful informative and educative materials than the dangers we fear the youths of this country have been exposed to since its advent.
For now the newly built lecture halls( but in the not distant future, all lectures in the universities lecture halls) should be recorded and made easily accessible to students partially or fully online with some live lecture recordings been accessible to other university students across the globe.
We should also ensure that every programme and course available for study at our universities are all tailored towards solving specific problems in Africa — our peculiar problems –much as it has a very high international appeal.The courses should relate to identifying the huge investment opportunities typical in Africa’s case and seek to empower the products of our universities invest, solve these problems and attain very enviable levels as far as the richest men and women are counted globally.
We should make our universities an attraction for all international students so they would be very eager to come here and get personally acquainted with the investment opportunities here and come here with the motive and objective of entering into partnerships with our governments, alumni and other private institutions and individuals to work towards reducing poverty in Africa and to result in the speedy development of Africa and Africans.
That one day many products of African universities especially that of the University of Ghana could earn enough to donate huge sums of money to reduce poverty in some less privileged countries across the globe.
By Ebenezer K N Baiden-Amissah
P O BOX LG 1254,
Legon Accra Ghana
Telephone 0245310380