The attention of the public has suddenly been riveted upon fake degree holders.
It all started with a lady Ms. not Dr. Anne Sansa Daly, who succeeded in fooling a whole country about what she is not. President John Mahama was a victim while he was in opposition.
Many Ghanaians think the revelation is only a tip of the iceberg, convinced that there are many such stories in the country.
But for the revelation about the lady’s fake qualification, the CEO of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Rashid Tanko Computer’s story could have remained obscured away from the public eye. He too is a PhD holder with a question mark.
Those who present fake certificates should be made to face the law, especially when they manage to be offered appointments based on the fake certificates they present.
It is even more serious when such crooks succeed in penetrating the medical space as the lady did.
We only hope that the medical attention she gave the President when he was in opposition did not include prescriptions. Be it as it may, the subject of fake qualifications has gained room on the public space and for good reasons.
The need for a general auditing of PhDs cannot be overlooked given what has happened recently.
We have taken notice of the Minority in Parliament’s stance on the subject under review, a story about which the Daily Guide carried in yesterday’s publication.
The red flag raised by the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Committee on Health, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie is in the right direction, especially since there could be more such unscrupulous persons in society presenting themselves as what they are not and, thus, endangering lives.
The Ranking Member demands answers from the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (GMDC), Ghana’s main medical practice regulatory body.
While we do not doubt the integrity of the Council to ensure that quack doctors do not practice in the country, the case of Ms. Anne Sansa Daly prompts worry and concerns among the public.
Being a human institution, some occurrences could have slipped attention. It is for this reason that we consider the lady’s case as a wakeup call for them to allay the fears of the public with a total audit of doctors’ qualifications, especially the foreign trained ones.
Since only GMDC-registered persons are allowed to practice medicine and dentistry in the country, we are curious about how Ms. Anne Sansa Daly could have held herself as a medical practitioner for four years without being detected.
The Ranking Member’s query should prompt valuable answers.
She had a media platform on GHOne TV to host a programme on health, which definitely sealed her place as a medical practitioner.
We have discovered that the Ranking Member has posed questions to the television network, demanding answers as to how they did not undertake due diligence on the purported qualification of the lady.
This is rather a tough one because having found herself a room on the public space, the media house naturally took things for granted, something which could have happened to others, especially with the GMDC not raising a red flag.
We have also observed that the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) have stopped the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) President, Mr. Joseph Obeng, from using ‘Dr’ since he only holds an honorary degree, which does not allow him to present himself as such.
Shouldn’t GTEC also extend its audit to others including the man at GIFEC whose CEO’s PhD is being questioned?