I have a friend. Let's call him Kobby. I've known him since I was ten years old. Ever since we were kids, Kobby has been a whiz with electronics.

The first day I met him, he fixed my walkman virtually with his eyes closed. Whenever our video deck was on the fritz, my dad would make us call Kobby to fix it. And he would. Often in seconds. The guy was just gifted. As we grew, Kobby turned his interest to computers, and conquered them too. There was literally nothing he couldn't do with an electronic gadget. We used to joke that if you locked Kobby in a room for three hours with nothing but a calculator and a screwdriver, you would come back to find him controlling NASA's satellites. Nobody was surprised when he landed a nice government job in ICT soon after he completed his first degree. Today, he is the deputy head of the ICT department.

Kobby is great at his job. The very best. Infinitely better than his Boss. But you know how we are in Ghana. We love Book. And not just any book. Kobby has every single professional qualification there is in his field, but his boss has a PhD. So that's it; there is no circumstance under which Kobby will ever be promoted to, or above his boss' level, unless he also pursues a PhD. The wealth of knowledge, talent and hands-on expertise that my friend Kobby has, will forever be used in carrying out the instructions of people who learnt about computers by reading about them.

Somewhere on the road to becoming a glorious HIMIC (Highly Indebted Middle-Income Country), we decided as a nation, that there was no better measure of a human being's value than his academic exploits. How many countries can you list that have had Professors as Presidents? In Ghana, you can't be trusted to manage a KVIP without a Masters' degree. Nobody will elevate you to a position of authority in any field of endeavour unless you demonstrate a full understanding of its textbooks, written by some bearded men - and women - who have never worked a day in the industry.

In Ghana, you are not a professional because you can do it; you are a professional because you can talk about it.

Perhaps that is part of our problems as a nation. Those who can't, lead while those who can, follow.

Today, we have an energy crisis that appears to be beyond our ability to solve. Could it be because those making the decisions about power don't actually know their way around a spanner, let alone a power plant?

In Ghana, we seem to think that if you spend time in a classroom, you come out with knowledge. And the more time you spend in the classroom, the more knowledge you come out with. Doctors and lawyers are sent before the ministerial appointments committee, and struggle with the most basic questions about their sector. The best they can come up with is, "Oh, I will learn when I get there".

You will learn when you get there? Were you appointed to lead or to learn? Is government now a classroom? Oh Ghana. Why do we like learning like that?

Now, let's not get it twisted - I have the utmost admiration for academic exploits. My father is a Professor. He's one of the world's leading experts in his field. His ideas are being applied in the fisheries industry around the world as we speak. He has spent a lifetime teaching and learning, and I have nothing but the utmost admiration for him and others of his ilk, but they certainly wouldn't make him chief fisherman at Elmina beach.

Everything has its place and everyone has their role. If we want our problems solved as a country, then we need problem solvers to lead us - people who have done it - not people who have read about it in a book - or worse, people who will waste the nation's time learning on the job when they should be DOING the job.

Mr President, Good Morning. Please, you say you are the Coach. Well, we are the fans. We expect a lot from you. I encourage you to pick the team wisely, na we won't win the game if you keep fielding goalkeepers in midfield.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I don't have a PhD. Luckily, I don't need one to serve breakfast.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!