Campaign Launched to Rename Kotoka Airport to Nkrumah International Airport

A coalition of concerned citizens has formally launched an advocacy campaign calling for Kotoka International Airport to be renamed after Ghana’s founding president, Kwame Nkrumah, ahead of the 60th anniversary of the 1966 coup that removed him from power. The campaign was officially launched Monday at the Airport View Hotel in Airport Residential Area, Accra, where advocate Steven Odarteifio delivered a keynote address describing the continued naming of the nation’s primary gateway after a coup figure as a deep moral contradiction. Speaking before representatives of the presidency, parliament, judiciary, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and civil society organisations, Odarteifio questioned Ghana’s choice to honour what he described as the memory of overthrow at the Republic’s front door. “How can we, as a people, continue to honour the memory of overthrow at the very door of the Republic?” he asked during the event, which also drew attendance from Madam Samia Nkrumah, daughter of the late president, activist Kwesi Pratt Jnr, and Democracy Hub leadership. Odarteifio noted that the airport was renamed in 1967, a year after the coup that removed Nkrumah on February 24, 1966. Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, one of the coup leaders, was shot and killed during a failed counter coup known as Operation Guitar Boy in April 1967 at what was then Accra International Airport. The advocate argued that an airport represents far more than infrastructure, calling it the nation’s handshake and the first sentence Ghana speaks to the world. He highlighted that approximately 3.4 million passengers travelled through the facility in 2024 alone, making the name arguably the most repeated Ghanaian reference globally. “Before they even leave their home country, they book a flight and the destination stares back at them,” Odarteifio said, referencing how the name appears on e-tickets, itineraries, boarding passes, email confirmations, airport screens in London, New York, Toronto, and Dubai, and in announcements at departure gates and during landing. He contrasted Ghana’s naming choice with airports in other African nations named after unifying independence figures, including Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya, Julius Nyerere International Airport in Tanzania, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Nigeria, and Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Côte d’Ivoire. The advocate also referenced the removal of Kotoka’s statue from the airport forecourt in October 2000 by the administration of former President Jerry John Rawlings, noting that successive governments under Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor, John Atta Mills, and Nana Akufo-Addo did not reinstate the memorial. “If that memorial could be removed and left unreinstated across administrations, then the airport name itself can also be reconsidered,” Odarteifio argued. He stressed that the campaign does not seek to erase history, but to ensure the nation’s primary gateway projects symbols that unite rather than divide. While Kotoka’s story and that of the National Liberation Council (NLC) can be preserved through education, museums, and documentaries, the airport name should represent what Ghana is proud to project, he said. The advocate announced plans to submit formal petitions to the Speaker of Parliament, the Majority Leader, the Transport Committee chair, and the Ministers for Transport and Foreign Affairs in the coming days. He also called on the judiciary to provide constitutional clarity on existing petitions filed by Democracy Hub and Samia Nkrumah. In an emotional portion of his address, Odarteifio recalled the return of Nkrumah’s body to Ghana on July 7, 1972, describing it as painful irony that the founder of the Republic was received at an airport bearing the name of one of the figures associated with his overthrow. “How does a country claim to honour its father, yet welcome him at a front door bearing the name of betrayal?” he asked. Odarteifio appealed directly to President John Dramani Mahama to use the moment to resolve the long standing national question, describing it as an opportunity to settle the nation’s conscience and align its symbols with its values. “Let Ghana’s international gateway speak one clear sentence to the world: Kwame Nkrumah International Airport,” he concluded. The campaign joins previous calls for renaming from civil society figures including anti corruption crusader Vitus Azeem, media personality Kweku Sintim-Misa, and activist Kwesi Pratt Jnr. Democracy Hub and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) have jointly filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court seeking removal of Kotoka’s name from the airport. Nkrumah led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule in 1957, making it the first sub Saharan African nation to achieve independence. He was overthrown in February 1966 while on a state visit to Beijing, in a coup that historical accounts indicate received support from Western intelligence agencies. The airport was originally built as a military facility by the British Royal Air Force during World War II and was handed over to civilian authorities after the war. In 1956, Nkrumah launched a development project to transform it into a terminal building, which was completed in 1958 with capacity for 500,000 passengers annually. It was named Accra International Airport before being renamed in Kotoka’s honour in 1969.