It’s absurd to get PhD in four months – Ransford Gyampo

Prof Ransford Edward Yaw Gyampo, a Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana has said it is an absurdity for any individual to acquire a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master and a Bachelor’s Degree in four months.

He said anybody who will make such an assumption is making such because the person has realized that most Ghanaians are ignorant.

“It is an absurdity that anybody would want to throw out there. Maybe it is not the PhD that I did some. Whoever is saying that he got a degree, masters and a PhD in four months…tell him that me [Ransford Gyampo] I am saying he is spewing an absurdity; it’s not possible.

“The grace of God does not fan illogicality,” Prof Gyampo said on Starr FM’s Starr Chat on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

Recounting what his teacher told him whilst in school, Yaw Gyampo noted that “God cannot do things that are locally impossible unless he wants to do a miracle.”

“The PhD business; the Doctor of Philosophy enterprise has no room for miraculous features or miraculous feats. It is you struggling and going through the canons of empirical research methodologies and learning and reading and researching, doing all manner of things before you get there. So, it is not a child’s play,” Ransford Gyampo explained.

He stated further that every pastor who cannot speak the English Language is holding a PhD these days.

“Pastors who cannot even string one sentence, simple sentences together say they are Rev Dr this or Rev Dr that,” he said.

Prof Gyampo added that there are people with honourary PhDs and even that one they are not supposed to be used.

“People pride themselves with it. You see you cannot cheapen things like that. The PhD journey if you do it in Africa, you don’t see the end of the tunnel until you are done. It’s a serious business. So, when I see people saying they use four months and mention God…, the PhD enterprise has no room for miracles,” he stressed.

The issue of people acquiring PhDs has been part of the Ghanaian public discourse after a renowned US-based Ghanaian musician, Sonnie Badu, posted on his Social Media handle that he used four months to acquire Bachelor’s Degree, Masters and PhD.

Many questioned the type of degree that he has been able to acquire and, in a reply, the ‘Baba’ singer described those social media commentators as “frogs” which he [a lion] will not respond to.