Enimil Ashon’s article on the subject matter above in the Daily Graphic of January 10, 2020 exposes several of the missing links in Ghana’s faltering quest to industrialise.
It is unfortunate that the writer seems to support those who question the worth of Kantanka’s “technological sophistications if we can’t make them available to ordinary Ghanaians or to organisations”. This is a legitimate concern, but it should rather be addressed to Ghana’s political leadership.
Enimil Ashon makes the argument that Kantanka’s products are priced way beyond the capacity of the ordinary Ghanaian pocket and he contrasts this with the example of the legendary VW Beetle, the introduction and success of which he rightly attributes to Adolf Hitler.
Yes, the VW Beetle was the result of a political decision. Ghana’s political leadership should, therefore, learn from this example and tap into Kantanka’s genius. If they fail to do this and leave him to his own devices, he should not be blamed when he engages in his fancy engineering passions.
The government should, for example, consider supporting him to lead in a project to mass produce, let’s say buses for public transportation, agricultural machinery or road construction equipment. I am sure Kantanka would relish this opportunity and would be willing to serve as a hub around which to mobilise young local expertise for such a national pet project.
In better organised societies, governments have, as a matter of policy, engaged in the active hunt for technological talent in pursuit of specific national goals. Some go as far as poaching talent from other countries. For example, after the Second World War, some 1,600 German rocket scientists were whisked to the United States and their work helped America to, among other things, land the first humans on the moon in 1969.
In Ghana, the lack of a national science and technology vision is clearly visible in the example of our neglect not only of Kantanka, but of many other prodigies of technological innovation. Even the work of our national universities and research institutions don’t seem to be particularly directed by any national vision. Pressures on these institutions to internally generate money have resulted in a mission creep. And nowhere is this more painfully evident than in KNUST where the humanities are gradually usurping the original mandate of this otherwise technology-oriented institution.
But the most uncharitable of the criticisms against Kantanka is that he “has too much money and he does not know what to do with it, that is why he chose to manufacture a ‘car plane’ in the face of the hardship facing Ghanaians”.
For heaven’s sake, Ghanaians don’t pay their taxes to Kantanka. He is, therefore, not responsible for relieving them of their hardships. At least, he should be applauded for using his wealth to prove that the black person is not inferior to any other race in the areas of science and technology.
Source: Graphic Onlne
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