Flashback: We 'eat' roads – Mahama tells critics

For every Ghanaian government that has sought to tout its achievements in infrastructural development, the counter-argument from the opposition has been that roads or infrastructure for that matter are not edible and therefore do not necessarily solve the needs of the average citizen.

However, in 2016, then President John Dramani Mahama who campaigned heavily on the infrastructural achievements of his government, argued that roads and infrastructure, in essence, can ultimately be eaten.

Read the full article as first published by 3news.com below


President John Dramani Mahama has retorted his critics who downplay his social intervention projects, which they say do not bring food to the table.

The commonly criticised project has been road construction, which has incidentally been a trump card of the government. Reacting to this criticism that ‘we don’t eat roads’, the President in an interview with Radio Savannah on Thursday in the Northern Region, pointed out to the contrary that roads are literally food that can be eaten.

“Ultimately we eat roads,” President John Mahama rejected the ‘blanket’ accusation as he poked fun at critics. He explained that foods that are sold on the markets are brought there by vehicles that use these roads.

“If the roads are good we will be able to evacuate more food to the markets,” he said, adding that this can even influence the rate of inflation and enhance transportation with many indirect benefits.

He said the construction of roads is equally important as building of hospitals which are also not eaten but take care of the sick in society to get well and contribute to the building of the nation.

Same can be said about schools that are being put up, he noted. “All these social intervention, they make this country a better place, and propel it to an era of prosperity,” President Mahama stated.

The President is in the Northern Region as part of his ‘Accounting to the People Tour’. He is expected to cut sod for the commencement of a number of projects in the region.