I was saddened when I read
on Graphic online on Wednesday September 11 2013 that “Stakeholders discuss
funding of science museum”.All I said to myself was,
there they go again trying to find ways of milking Ghana for an over 30 year
old project which is still in limbo.
Permit me to proceed with
alacrity.
In that
piece it was stated that, “the Executive
Director of the National Museums and Monuments Board, Dr. Zagba Narh Oyartey,
speaking at a forum in Accra called on civil society, NGOs and other
stakeholders in science and technology to help develop a coherent approach in
ensuring the realisation of the dream.”
I want to find out from Dr. Oyartey the dream he was talking about. The dream
that has been shattered by miscommunication or dishonesty?
Sometimes
I am forced to question the mental integrity of our leaders who have received
formal education.I am
brought to that point because of how our leaders seem to be taking us for a
ride.
If our
leaders do not know then I would remind them that, according to the definition
by the International Council of Museums, a museum is typically a permanent
institution in the services of society and of its development, open to the
public, which acquires, conserves, research, communicates and exhibits, for
purposes of study, education, enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence
of people and their environment and not a place developed for squatters.
I remember vividly that a year ago the Chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Fritz Baffour, stated emphatically that
the facility whose construction began forty years ago has been left unattended
to due to budgetary constraints.
However speaking to the
Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board a few months
ago, he stated otherwise.According to him the project
has been at a standstill due to the change in hands of Directors who have all
been in acting position adding that, 70% of works on the project was done an
was only left with some fittings to do.
If one would remember, in July 2006 a publication by The Statesman stated that in an interview with Agyiri
Sackey, Principal Curator of the MST on the state of affairs at the museum, he disclosed
that Government had released ¢2.5bn to be used in the completion of the
project.
He
added that the idea was to complete the ground floor of the building housing
the MST for the staff to move in; the rest of the work would then continue.
Mr Sackey also said the major challenges that
faced the MST were lack of human resources, and logistics. He said the few
personnel with the MST then were also resigning due to the poor condition of
service and a lack of resources to work with.This
leads me to my questions.
Do the
personnel have better conditions of service and resourced now?Why has
the museum not been completed?What
was the money used for if it has not been completed?Since I
do not want anyone to tell us the money was not enough for the project, I would
add a further question.
If the
funding was not sufficient then, weren’t estimates made before government
released money for its completion?
Today
when you visit the project all you will realize is how deteriorating the
project keeps on getting with almost all the windows broken.
It is
sad that forty years down the lane, the Museum of Science and
Technology (MST), which was the brainchild of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame
Nkrumah, is yet to be completed due to the certain discrepancies.
A huge
number of otherwise laudable projects abandoned just like the Museun of
Science and Technology (MST).
To borrow the words of Professor George
Hagan, a former Chairman of the National Commission on Culture whom I agree
with “it is a national disgrace that it
has taken 40 years to set up a science museum in Ghana’’.
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