Fellow Ghanaians,
News broke last week that the government is working on plans to build a new airport in Bolgatanga. And I ask, government, when will you learn? When will common sense triumph over political showmanship? When will we finally understand that development is not about monuments of prestige, but about the arteries of everyday life that keep a nation alive?
We have been here before. We have seen the glitter, the speeches, the sod-cuttings, the ribbon-cuttings, the smiling politicians who promise “transformation.” And we have also seen what comes after—the silence, the dust, and the empty buildings that stand as monuments to folly. Do we not remember Ho Airport? It was built with fanfare, hailed as a game changer for the Volta Region, and launched with pride. Today, it is a ghost airport, barely used, a white elephant consuming resources but providing almost nothing in return. Airlines barely touch down there because demand is so low, ticket prices are so high, and roads remain the preferred choice for most travellers.
So, must we now repeat the same mistake in Bolgatanga? Must we once again pour scarce national resources into concrete and steel that will serve only a few, while the vast majority of citizens choke on dust, sit in endless traffic, or risk their lives on single-carriage roads? Must we, in 2025, still be obsessed with vanity projects instead of facing our real developmental needs with courage?
Fellow Ghanaians, let us be honest with ourselves. What this country needs is not another underused airport. What this country needs are proper roads, functional railways, safe highways, and affordable transportation networks that serve the many, not the few. We are in 2025, and yet, this country cannot boast of a functioning rail line connecting Accra to Kumasi, our two biggest cities, with millions of citizens moving between them every year. This is not just shameful; it is scandalous.
Every single day, thousands of Ghanaians risk their lives on the Accra–Kumasi highway. Every day, hundreds of buses, trucks, and private vehicles snake across a dangerous single-carriage road that should long ago have been transformed into a modern dual carriageway. Every week, lives are lost—young men, women, mothers, fathers, children—all cut down by accidents on roads that should have been fixed decades ago. And yet, instead of investing in solving this national tragedy, our leaders are dreaming of a shiny new airport in Bolgatanga. What kind of logic is this? What kind of governance is this?
Let us talk about flying in Ghana. The truth is that flying anywhere in this country has become a luxury, priced outrageously, and accessible only to a privileged few. Ticket prices for domestic flights are so high that most ordinary Ghanaians cannot even dream of boarding a plane within their own country. People would rather sit on a bus for eight hours than pay airline fees that would cripple their household budgets. So tell me, how many people in Bolgatanga will be able to afford frequent flights? Who will use this airport? Are we building infrastructure for the people, or are we building monuments for politicians to point to and say, “We built this”?
Fellow Ghanaians, this is not development. This is misprioritization dressed as progress.
What we need is bold investment in national rail. Imagine a Ghana where Accra to Kumasi is a two-hour train ride on a high-speed rail. Imagine a Ghana where Tamale to Accra is connected by modern rail, safe, efficient, and affordable. Imagine a Ghana where farmers in the north can transport produce quickly and cheaply to markets in the south without watching their tomatoes rot on the road. That is development. That is transformation. That is how you build a nation. But instead, we are obsessed with airports in regions where demand cannot sustain them.
Even if you build this Bolgatanga airport, how many flights will land there daily? One? Two? A week? At what cost? How long before it becomes another white elephant, another Ho Airport, another empty shell?
And yet, our roads continue to crumble. Drive on the Ofankor–Nsawam stretch and tell me that this is a country serious about development. Hours lost in traffic, cars breaking down from bad roads, communities buried under dust, commuters suffocating in fumes, and yet contractors casually shifting timelines with no consequence. Drivers spend thousands of cedis every month on maintenance because of potholes and poor roads, while the government signs off contracts that destroy whole road networks instead of fixing them in phases.
Meanwhile, our railway system—one of the most transformative tools for national development—remains a relic of the colonial era. Where other nations have expanded rail to every corner of their land, Ghana has let its system collapse, investing in it only for photo opportunities and election headlines. How can we, in 2025, with all our resources, all our brains, all our needs, still lack a functional railway network?
Fellow Ghanaians, this is why our country seems stuck, running in circles. Because we chase prestige instead of progress. Because we confuse ribbon cuttings with transformation. Because we keep pouring money into projects that look good on billboards but mean little to the average Ghanaian struggling to get from one town to another.
And let us not forget the corruption that usually comes with these projects. Airports, highways, and other mega-infrastructure works are notorious conduits for inflated contracts, kickbacks, and shady deals. So we must ask, who benefits from another airport in Bolgatanga? Is it the people, or is it contractors and politicians? Who is counting the real cost, not just in dollars, but in opportunities lost, in lives lost, in futures stalled?
Fellow Ghanaians, there is also a symbolic dimension to all this. Development must be about inclusion, about solving the problems that touch the lives of ordinary people. And yet, when government after government chooses white elephants over real needs, what message are they sending? They are telling us that governance is about spectacle, not service. They are telling us that our cries for safe roads, decent transport, and affordable mobility do not matter as much as their desire to cut a ribbon and deliver a speech. They are telling us that they govern for themselves, not for us.
But we, the people, must resist this. We must speak clearly and loudly. We must demand that resources be allocated where they matter most. We must refuse to accept another Ho Airport in a different name, another monument to folly when our people are dying on highways and wasting hours in traffic.
To those who argue that every region deserves an airport, let me say this: every region deserves development, yes. But development must be smart, it must be sustainable, it must be demand-driven. Building airports no one uses is not equity; it is a waste. True equity is when every Ghanaian, whether in Bolgatanga, Tamale, Kumasi, Accra, or Takoradi, can travel safely, quickly, and affordably because the rail, road, and transport systems work for all.
Fellow Ghanaians, this obsession with airports while rail and roads are ignored is like a family that has no food in the kitchen, no roof over their heads, no beds to sleep on, but decides to buy a grand piano for the living room because it looks impressive to visitors. That is not wisdom; it is vanity.
We need to rethink our priorities as a nation. We need leaders who will invest in systems, not monuments. Leaders who will build a Ghana where movement is not a daily nightmare, where goods do not rot on the road, where lives are not lost in needless accidents. We need leaders who will stop playing with white elephants and start delivering real change.
So to the government, I say this plainly: shelve this Bolgatanga airport idea. Redirect those funds into constructing a world-class road to Bolgatanga. Redirect those funds into completing a modern railway system. Redirect those funds into fixing the countless abandoned roads and bridges that cut communities off from opportunity. That is how you build Ghana. Not with empty airports, but with functioning arteries of progress.
And to you, fellow Ghanaians, let us not be dazzled by concrete and speeches. Let us demand real transformation. Let us demand leaders who put people before prestige. Let us not accept another white elephant dressed up as development.
Because in the end, airports will not build Ghana. Railways will. Roads will. Systems will. That is the truth. And that is the truth we must now insist on.