Speech by Steven Odarteifio, a concerned citizen, at the launch of the advocacy to rename the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on Monday, January 19, 2026 at the Airport View Hotel, Airport Residential Area, Accra

 

Your Excellency the President,
Honorable Speaker, Members of Parliament and Ministers of State
Their Lordships of the Supreme Court and the Judiciary,
Chief, Traditional Rulers, religious leaders, civil society, the leadership of Democracy Hub, Madam Samia Nkrumah, Comrade Kwesi Pratt Jnr, and fellow Ghanaians:

We are here today because Our conscience will not give Us rest.

Some things are bigger than politics. Some things sit deeper than policy. Some things live in the spirit of a nation. And when the spirit of a nation is unsettled, no amount of development, no number of roads, no new jobs, no new buildings can fully quiet the unease.

24^th February 1966 to 24th February 2026, will mark 60 years since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah - the Founder of our Republic and African of the Millennium.

In April 1967, during the failed counter-coup known as Operation Guitar Boy, Lt-Gen. E.K. Kotoka was shot and killed at the Accra International Airport.
His friends/co-conspirators that helped overthrow President Nkrumah a year earlier decided that the best way to remember him was to place his name on the nation’s front door. Hence Accra International Airport’ became ‘Kotoka International Airport’.

Ghana’s gateway to the world ended up carrying the name of a coup-era figure - rather than the name that represents Ghana’s founding story.

And so We are here, in humility but with firmness and ask:
How can we, as a people, continue to honor the memory of overthrow at the very door of the Republic?
My brothers and sisters, an airport is not just an airport.
It is the nation’s handshake.
It is the first greeting.
It is the first sentence Ghana speaks to the world.

Every year, millions pass through that gateway - about 3.4 million passengers in 2024 alone.
And in seasons like Christmas, thousands in the diaspora come home to trace their heritage and experience Ghana firsthand - many drawn by the very independence story of Dr. Nkrumah that made Ghana famous across the world.

Yet the first word on the front door points them, not to the spirit of independence, but to the memory of overthrow.

Before they even leave their home country, they book a flight and the destination stares back at them: “Kotoka International Airport.”

• Their e-ticket says it.
• Their itinerary says it.
• Their boarding pass says it.
• The airline’s email confirmations repeat it.
• The airport screens in London, New York, Toronto, Dubai display it
• They arrive at the departure gate and hear it again:
  “Passengers travelling to Accra, Kotoka International Airport…”
• And as the plane begins its descent, the pilot announces it

Before they learn our story

Before they taste our hospitality

They have already heard one Ghanaian name over and over and over again.

Is that the story we want to export - millions of times, year after year?

The name Kotoka is arguably the most repeated Ghanaian name across the world:

Not Kofi Annan - a global symbol of diplomacy.
Not Prof. J.B. Danquah - a founding father of our great republic
Not President Rawlings - who birthed the Fourth Republic and helped engineer the democratic order we enjoy today.

Not President Kufuor - who advanced Ghana’s democratic consolidation.

Not President Akuffo-Addo – who made significant contributions to our educational sector
Not President Atta Mills - who died honorably while serving Ghana, and whose name still softens divisions rather than deepens them.

Ladies and Gentlemen

We can teach the story of Kotoka and the NLC in our schools.
We can preserve that memory in our museums.
We can debate that past in our books and documentaries.
But the sign at our front door must represent what unites us - what uplifts us - what we are proud to project.

Kotoka International Airport is not a name we should be proud to project

1.    Beyond a successful military career, Kotoka is not widely linked in public record to major national development projects.

2.    in the final months of President Rawlings’ tenure, on the 6 October 2000, Kotoka’s statue was removed from the forecourt of the airport. It was not reinstated under President Kufuor - nor later under Presidents Mills and Akufo-Addo. If that memorial could be removed and left unreinstated across administrations, then the airport name itself can also be reconsidered

3.    The coup introduced a costly political instability that Ghana was able to recover from over 30 years later.

4.    Most countries name their main airports after the city/region or after figures whose legacy unites and elevates national pride - not figures chiefly associated with unconstitutional seizure of power.

a.     Kenya — Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (named after Kenya’s first president).

b.    Tanzania — Julius Nyerere International Airport (named after Tanzania’s first president).

c.     Nigeria (Abuja) — Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (named after Nigeria’s first president).

d.    Côte d’Ivoire — Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport (named after Côte d’Ivoire’s first president).

5.    Nkrumah is Ghana and Africa’s most globally recognized independence symbol.
a beacon of selflessness, epitomized into the BBC’s Africa of the Millennium Award.

So today we rally a call to the conscience of our beloved nation.

To Parliament: We say, heed our call. In the coming days, we will submit a formal request to the Honorable Speaker, the Majority Leader, the Chair of the Transport Committee, the Minister for Transport, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

To the Judiciary: Provide constitutional clarity and timely direction, responding to the petition of the Democracy Hub and daughter of our First President.

To Chief, Traditional Rulers and religious leaders: Lend your moral voice, because what we are correcting is not only a name - it is the spirit of our national story

I am inspired by, and respectfully acknowledge and commend, the lawful and courageous steps taken by citizens and groups like Democracy Hub, Madam Samia Nkrumah, Mr. Kweku Sintim-Misa (KSM), Mr. Kwesi Pratt, to bring this matter into national focus. We honor the countless Ghanaians - here and in the diaspora - who have quietly, expressed their convictions on this issue. And today, my colleagues and I – Choose to continue that responsibility - with law, dignity, and persuasion.

And to the people of Ghana: Let us move as one -  in spirit, in truth and with one voice

To President Mahama: In your New Year message, you challenged the youth to lead today, not tomorrow. At this moment we have answered that call starting with this noble cause, serving today and not tomorrow, not as spectators but as citizens of the Ghana We Want, the Ghana Nkrumah has always wanted.

Mr. President and my fellow Ghanaians, the scriptures instruct and reminds us to “Honour your father, that your days may be long…”.
Kwame Nkrumah is the founding father, the seed and root of our Republic. On Friday July 7^th 1972, Dr. Nkrumah’s body returned home

The aircraft touched down. The doors opened. The air was heavy - Ghana was on standstill receive Her son. The glass casket is brought out, slowly, carefully, in full view of the nation and the world. Accompanying the casket, Madam Fathia and to her imaginery side, the Spirit of our founder, and as Osagyefo’s spirit looked up, he was forced to confront a painful irony: the very gateway receiving him, boldly carried the name of a man responsible for his overthrow.

How does a country claim to honor its father, yet welcome him at a front door bearing the name of betrayal? How do we reconcile that with ourselves? Especially when we remember that, on the day he boarded that flight, he left believing the country was in “good hands” - with men who, behind the assurances, were already part of the conspiracy to remove him.

So yes - his body came home. His name is in our books. His monuments exist. But his spirit has never fully returned. We have kept his memory, but we have not completed his honor.

And until that contradiction is corrected, His spirit will continue to wander in other lands and hover over the seas as they have for the past 54 years.

Your excellency, the President, RESET this name of our national gateway to ease the troubled conscience of our motherland.

A divided national conscience cannot build a united national destiny.

And I believe – deeply - that when a nation’s conscience is settled, its path becomes clearer. When a nation’s symbols are aligned with its values, its progress becomes steadier. When we honor our father fully, our way becomes more prosperous.

Mr. President, this your moment of legacy. Sixty years on, every constitutional leader has inherited this unresolved national question. You have the rare opportunity to be the one who finally answers it.

Let Ghana’s international gateway speak one clear sentence to the world.

Kwame Nkrumah International Airport.

For Whose spirit would we rather have resting in peace, Gen. Kotoka or Kwame Nkrumah

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.