Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Opoku-Ahweneeh Danquah, says the national oil company has decided to join the promotion of the study of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the country.
According to him, Science and Maths remained the bedrock of the society’s existence today, disclosing that GNPC was making huge investments in the study and promotion of STEM for the benefit of the country.
Speaking at the finals of the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) in Kumasi on Wednesday, Mr. Danquah said GNPC recognised the urgent need to maximize local content and local participation for Ghanaians, through developing expertise in STEM within the value chain, for job creation.
He argued that science was the greatest collective endeavour, and contributed to ensuring a longer and healthier life, monitors human health, provided medicine, helped to provide potable water for our basic needs, including food, provided energy and made life more fun, among others.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank the management of Primetime Production for having sustained this project for the past 29 years. Next year will be three decades of the National Science and Maths Quiz, one whole generation of patronising the backbone of the country,” he noted.
The GNPC boss described the NMSQ as a good project, and said that was why the national oil company had decided to support it.
“I will conclude by sharing a gem first with the contestants and to all students watching this. In school, you are taught lessons and will have to take a test like this quiz; but in the real world, life will test you, and most of the time, there are no prior lessons, nor are there answers to life’s tests or life’s quiz. The true scientist is not the person who gives the right answers; but one who asks the right questions. One of the greatest scientists Albert Einstein said in life, “The important thing is to never stop questioning.”
“Regardless of the outcome of our participation in that year’s competition, NSMQ ignited a passion in us to continue searching for knowledge. It not only influenced the way we viewed the world of science and technology, but also the way we approached our lives. It shaped our paths over time, and the choices we have made,” he asserted.
He noted “Personally, the biggest experience in science is the process – or known to most of us as the scientific method. The meticulous empirical method has characterised the development of science. Science teaches us that it doesn’t matter how smart or knowledgeable one is, one cannot hasten the process. The greatest success of science is the spirit of never giving up.”
The participating schools were PRESEC, Prempeh College and Adisadel College.
At the end of the competition, PRESEC Boys carried the day as the most decorated school in the NSMQ history, beating Prempeh College and Adisadel College to the trophy.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu