By Kingsley Webora TANKEH
Activists are calling for Kotoka International Airport to be renamed, citing the coup origins of Gen. E.K. Kotoka, which they say directly contradicts the democratic values the nation espouses and the spirit on which the nation was founded.
Speaking to the media in Accra, the campaign’s convenor, Steven Nhyira Odarteifio, raised concerns about the naming of Ghana’s premier international airport—what he described as the “gateway to the country”—after a coup leader.
He maintained that the country’s front door to the world must bear a name that unifies and inspires, rather than one chosen by “co-conspirators of a coup”.
“Some things are bigger than politics. Some things sit deeper than policy. An airport is not just an airport. It is the nation’s handshake. It is the first sentence Ghana speaks to the world,” Mr. Odarteifio emphasised.
The push comes at a time when the overthrow of Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah approaches its 60th anniversary in February 2026.
Kotoka International Airport’s name honours Lieutenant General E. K. Kotoka, a key figure in the 1966 coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Gen. Kotoka was later killed at the airport in 1967. After his passing, his colleagues renamed the then Accra International Airport in his memory.
With over 3.4 million passengers arriving in Ghana in 2024 alone, Mr. Odarteifio argued that the name ‘Kotoka’ is “arguably the most popular Ghanaian name across the world,” broadcast on tickets, boarding passes and airport screens from New York to Dubai.
“Before they learn our story, before they taste our hospitality, they have already heard one Ghanaian name over and over and over again,” he stated, quizzing, “is that the story we want to export, millions of times, year after year?”
Mr. Odarteifio, therefore, admonished that the name be changed to honour the legacy of any of the country’s leaders from the First to Fourth Republic of Ghana or any other prominent figure.
He compared Ghana to its regional peers, listing major African airports named after founding presidents – Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria) and Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire).
“Nkrumah is Ghana and Africa’s most globally recognised independence symbol,” Mr. Odarteifio asserted, referencing the BBC’s recognition of Dr. Nkrumah as Africa’s Personality of the Millennium in 1999, “yet in his own country, he sits in the shadows”.
“This can’t continue,” he declared.
Endorsed by satirist and talk show host Kwaku Sintim-Misa (KSM), who highlighted the youthful nature of the campaigners as a sign of hope and the awakening of national consciousness, the campaign marks the start of a fight to restore the enduring legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
“To have a group of people who were not even born then decide that ‘we’re going to start this agenda’ gives us hope to know that all the noises we’re making, we’re not talking for nothing,” KSM stated, saying the campaigners are on the right side of history.
Mr. Odarteifio announced that plans are far advanced to submit formal petitions to Parliament – the Speaker, Majority and Minority Leaders, relevant ministers and the Judiciary for constitutional clarity on the matter.
He, however, appealed to President John Mahama to seize what he described as a legacy-defining opportunity to “settle the nation’s conscience.”
“When a nation’s symbols are aligned with its values, its progress becomes steadier,” Mr. Odarteifio noted.
He concluded by proposing the name ‘Kwame Nkrumah International Airport’, with a rather somber question for the nation to ponder: “For whose spirit would we rather have resting in peace, Gen. Kotoka or Kwame Nkrumah?”
The post Gateway to country shouldn’t be named after coup leader – activists appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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