This is my third article in the Daily Graphic on Apostle Kwadwo Safo and his engineering feats. I watched his exhibition on December 31, 2017, at Awoshie in Accra on television, his 37th annual exhibition. I have personally attended one of them.
Among the dignitaries at the exhibition was the President, the first time a sitting president had attended. Apostle Safo exhibited a machine that identifies and names leaves, a television operated through a musical conductor’s conducting skills, a tricar limousine and others.
Speeches showered praises on him and made promises of help. Notably, there has been no help for this great man all along. Elsewhere he would have been a national asset.
Are we going to sit by for Apostle Safo to pass on only to realise that we have lost a gem? It happened to Nana Drobo in the 1990s when he found a cure for HIV and AIDS at a time the western world could not even control the weight loss and diarrhoea of AIDS patients And by our scepticism he died with his knowledge. Apostle Safo should not go that way.
At the latest exhibition, the Minister of Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation gave his prepared speech on behalf of the government while the President himself gave an extempore speech. In both speeches, there was no promise of intended concrete support by the government beyond the fact that the government was creating an enabling environment to allow all such endeavours to flourish. That is a general approach and not good enough to support a particular local ingenuity.
We have had Adom and Boafo vehicles in the 1970s but we did not support them. That was when Tata had not even started manufacturing. Toyota and Nissan (called Datsun then) had just started manufacturing. We could have been miles ahead by now if we had supported the effort.
Our universities have been disappointing in this matter. Apostle Safo has received honorary doctorates from at least the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Ghana, Legon, yet the recognition was not for his engineering feats, rather for his philanthropic deeds. Yes, he is a philanthropist, but more importantly, he is an engineering wonder and that is what I expected the universities to recognise and award him for. By now one of our universities should have established a chair for him, a chair for Apostle Safo Engineering Studies.
An engineer in one of our universities once said Apostle Safo’s manufactured aeroplane would never fly because it did not conform to the laws of aeronautical metallurgy in welding the joints of the plane. I asked, “Why don’t you assist him?” He answered: “We invited him but he would not come.” I asked: “Why do you not go to him?” No tangible answer was given. Are we developing our local initiative?
What are our Institute of Engineering, entrepreneurs, individuals and civil society, on the whole, doing to support?
At the said exhibition, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, who also attended, gave suggestions for concrete support: By an administrative fiat the government can direct all ministries, departments and agencies procuring vehicles to include at least one Kantanka vehicle; the government should include a Kantanka vehicle in its fleet of state protocol vehicles and any foreign diplomat or president coming to Ghana will be picked from the airport in that vehicle; the President on national occasions could ride in that vehicle, not just for national pride but to support and showcase what we have. That is a concrete support which would be a good example for others to follow.
We add other suggestions that the government, when buying vehicles for chiefs, for example, could buy Kantanka vehicles. The government or the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation should invite Apostle Safo, sit down with him and discuss where he can be supported. The government can also waive taxes for the parts it imports for its industries in order to make his final products relatively cheap. The 275 parliamentarians can be encouraged to use his vehicles. It is not a good reflection that Madam Adwoa Safo, Minister of State in charge of Procurement and MP for Dome Kwabenya is not using her father’s vehicle. The impression out there is that if the vehicle was strong enough she would have been the first person to use one to advertise for her father.
It is my hope that Apostle Safo has catalogued all these inventions such that in his absence, even if a new invention cannot be made, others can replicate what he has already catalogued. It is my aspiration that come the next exhibition in December 2018 the invited guests would all be attending the exhibition in Kantanka vehicles and the state would be picking officials at the airport in a Kantanka vehicle.
Source: Dr Akwesi Osei/ghanaweb
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I agree with the writer and have severally posted on twitter the same sentiments about apostle to Ghanaian news media and to the president. I am glad others see it like i do and want the govt to start making use of local talents in technology and innovation to build a sustainable technological base for making livelihoods in rural and urban Ghana better. It will not be hard to support Apostle to set up assembly lines so that economies of scale and divisions of labor can be used to mass produce his products, as well as make upgrades and updates with each improved product cycle development. I think if, for a start, if apostle was urged to go into farm machinery, construction and road building machines, and urban transport including buses, light trains (for our cities) and taxis, Ghana will be on the path to sustainable industrialization with a strong local base.
We all acknowledge Apostle Safo's creativity in the area of industrialization. I totally agree with some of your comments urging him to divert his focus on the flamboyant exhibitions to a lucrative aboboyaa business or improved Abossey Okai macho. Moreover, the road leading to his exhibition ground is in a deplorable state. What prevents him from constructing the road which is just a short stretch; that's from the Fraga Oil Filling Station through to his place. If he can't construct such a small stretch, how do you expect people to patronize your highly sophisticated cars and other equipment.
What stops him from producing Aboboyaa, which is cheap and he can make millions of money out of? because it would definitely be patronized? The Chinese have flooded the market with it, and are making a killing with it. he's lacking very much in business strategy! and sadly, his son who's supposed to see that and chart the course, has failed him!
MAYBE MR KANTANKA LIKES THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING. BLACK MAN MENTALITY 'I ALONE DID IT SYNDROME' IS CATCHING UP WIYH HIM. HE HAS NOT CALLED FOR SUGGESTIONS FROM ANY QUARTERS, NEITHER SUGGESTIONS FROM ANY QUARTERS HAVE OFFERED THEMSELVES TO HIM 'KANTANKA'. SO WHERE DO WE START? HMMMMM. IREST MY CASE.
Its Sad, we will watch on and give him a heros welcome after he is gone. Thank God he will live to see his vision fully materialised. God bless ING. One....
The tests of vehicles is a serious aspects of manufacturing and videoing and playing them.for marketing adverts are the magnetic way of attracting customers but what have we seen of Apostle Kwadwo Safo. Vehicle are recalling cars due to faults detected and they are part marketing and how is Apostle poised for such issues . There are many issues to discuss and we need have a television station in this digital age so we can see different thing but what is Apostle Kwadwo Safo doing with all such . It was announced today that TOYOTA is recalling 700,000 cars in South Africa because the Bag designed when you have an accident is defective.When VW was caught in the cheating scandal of fumes detection system did you how much they were asked to pay. Are we really ready for the challenges of Industry production.