An Entire Country Debates Passport Over PHD While Most of Their PHD Holders Are Leaving

Thursday, 1 August 2024

Bu: TB Obwoge

Now that the debate has died down I can finally write about the train wreck that took place on all social media platforms.

Imagine a country ranked 137th in the world for education, that same country was also ranked over 180 when it come to the actual educational facilities. Also add in that most of the population thinks that they're the smartest humans on earth. Then add one of their citizens migrated to another country, then goes viral for saying he would prefer a Dutch passport over a Ghana PHD any day.

The Ghanaian saying this, is a real live toilet cleaner, this is what the population in Ghana called him, most would say he was a janitor or simply a cleaner.

This debate has been months long, with many thinking is has everything to do with patriotism and nothing to do with the value of what an educated person can get out of life. Almost every article is hyper focused on loyalty to Ghana, not the fact that obtaining visa approvals won't be such an issue with a valuable education like being a doctor or teacher holding a PHD.

PhD stands for Doctor of Philosophy (Professional Doctor Degree) and is considered the highest postgraduate achievement you can earn. To complete a doctorate you must produce significant and original research.

Many Ghanaians decided to weigh in on the debate because of course there is nothing in Ghana more important than arguing about a worthless topic. It isn't like there are 4 conflict issues in the country (sarcasm because there are 4 conflict areas), or rampant rape, femicide and corruption, but who cares about those trivial issues.

When a country can simply sit around and debate about the post of a Dutch toilet cleaner who can't even afford to travel without using his wife's income!

The fact that the majority of the people that weighed in would prefer a Dutch passport shows how most haven't thought through the entire debate.

Some people took the debate into being hatred for Ghana, here are some of the comments below.

Solomon Nyantakyi

Hon Asante Gyimah Any idiot can acquire any passport of any nationality. It doesn’t require any intellectual exercise. You can lie or fabricate a story that you’re being persecuted to apply for asylum, and when granted you can subsequently follow the due process to acquire nationality. Or you can choose the marriage of convenience path or other means to achieve the same end. However, you can’t acquire PhD through marriage or asylum or any of the above means. A strong power of the brain is needed to acquire the academic knowledge, and when that is done, a stronger power of the brain is needed to retain it.

In the replies people address this man as Dr, assuming he is a doctor, he then has several posts on his Facebook account about how low some salaries are in the country. He seems to not understand that Ghana's daily minimum wage is only around 18 GHS which was raised from 14.88 GHS due to the standing of the Ghana cedi (currency).

Ghanaians are paid some of the lowest wasges according to this author, where a cedi is not worth a single USD but for comparison it is like having one USD. Even if it isn't worth it in value, people will see spending 100 GHS as a lot of money, while to an Ameican it would be likened to $20 USD (15 USD with this current rate of the cedi).

Hon Asante Gyimah

Solomon Nyantakyi Dr. I’m not downplaying the importance or power of PhD or the stress ppl like you went through to acquire,Nope!!!

All I’m trying to say is looking at the system in this country, I’ll choose the passport over PhD Anyday!!!

We have lots of PhD holders sinking the economy day in and day out. They have PhD but can’t solve menial problems surrounding us.

2. When it comes to income, a cleaner in Netherlands earn lots of income as compared to some PhD holders in Ghana irrespective of their bills!!!

My point is the state of this economy doesn’t make education useful in Ghana!

Here it is, the when the logic isn't logic-ing. Ghana's doctors and teachers are leaving the country so quickly that doctors are now volunteering to work in the country for 12-months.

This is not a logical debate like most of the topics many seem to waste their time on in the country.

This is another example of why Ghana is no place for African-Americans to run off to live. People with such little logic and frankly as many of the articles claim, such lack of patriotism for their own people and country, this is no place to migrate.

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