President John Dramani Mahama has linked the increasing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country to modern dietary habits and increasingly sedentary lifestyles, advising the public to desist from such ways of life.
The President, speaking during the launch of the Free Primary Healthcare on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, took a light-hearted swipe at Ghanaians’ love for heavy late-night meals, jokingly admonishing the public to reduce such eating habits to promote a healthier lifestyle.
According to him, ending long workdays with heavy meals at night is a practice that could have negative health implications.
Advising the public to take their dinner early evening, which he says is the ideal practice, he jokingly advised the public to “stop eating banku at night,” drawing laughter from the audience.
“If you are the kind of person who likes eating heavy foods, you are not physically active, you are sitting at one place and yet when they give you your fufu or banku, you say its too small. You want a big bowl of fufu and you want to eat it everyday.
“Sometimes you eat it at night before you go and sleep. Please by 7PM, eat your dinner and don’t eat again. If you are hungry just pick some cup of tea or something. Don’t eat any heavy food. You come from work in the evening, your wife is tired but you force her to come and get you banku at 10PM, why?” he said.
Unlike contemporary sedentary lifestyles, the President drew comparison between previous and present generations, noting that the earlier generations were involved in physically demanding activities such as farming, preventing them from contracting certain diseases.
“Our fathers used to eat banku and co in the night but they were physically active, they used to go to the farm and they expended energy. Now we don’t do any physical activity. You wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, drive to work, sit behind the desk 8 am to 5pm, drive back home and when you come home you ask for your banku. What physical activity did you do to deserve banku?” he questioned jokingly.
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