Renowned legal scholar and governance advocate, Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has said renaming Kotoka International Airport is costly and unwarranted.
He argued that the Airport’s name is firmly embedded in global aviation systems, international treaties, maps, branding, and digital platforms, which would make any attempt to change it a costly and complex exercise.
According to Kwaku Azar, the names that have endured for more than six decades have survived not one political moment, but military rule, constitutional change, democratic transition, and generational turnover.
He added that each generation has the right to question history, but no generation has the right to treat every inherited symbol as if it were freshly imposed.
In a write-up shared on Facebook, Kwaku Azar stated, “Renaming KIA now would incur significant administrative, financial, and symbolic costs without improving operational efficiency, safety, or economic growth”.
“Kotoka International Airport is already recognised globally. Stability and predictability are assets in aviation. Changing its name now risks confusion and unnecessary costs, with no measurable benefit to the country,” Prof Asare stated.
Kwaku Azar further added that “names are not endorsements. They are anchors of memory. KIA does not ask travellers to celebrate coups. It reminds us, silently and persistently, of a turbulent chapter in our national journey: post-independence authoritarianism, military intervention, Cold War pressures, internal dissent, and the long, painful road to constitutional democracy. Erasing the name does not heal that history. It merely hides it. A mature nation does not erase uncomfortable chapters; it teaches them”.
He further stressed that the renaming of Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to Accra International Airport risks erasing important lessons from Ghana’s history, explaining that the 1969 renaming of KIA was not meant to glorify the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah.
“The appeal of the simplistic claim that the airport’s name exists to celebrate the 1966 coup rests on an incomplete reading of history. The renaming of KIA was not intended to glorify the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah”.
“The airport was renamed to mark the site of Kotoka’s death, not to glorify military intervention in politics. It records a moment of national turmoil rather than endorsing it—an act of remembrance, not celebration,” Prof Asare said.
Meanwhile, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, the Minister of Transport, has defended the government’s decision to rename the Kotoka International Airport.
The Transport Minister highlighted that the Mahama government’s decision is not politically motivated, arguing that renaming the airport is of significant importance to the Ghanaian people.
He explained that the government decision to just restore the airport’s original name, Accra International Airport, given by Ghana’s first presiednt Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Speaking during a working visit to the State Transport Company (STC) terminal in Accra, Joseph Bukari Nikpe stated, “Parliament will be expected to pass a lot of bills, and as part of the government’s agenda, we have a lot of bills from the Ministry of Transport, and one of them is the renaming of the Kotoka International Airport to its original name.
Renaming the airport to Accra International Airport is of significant importance to the Ghanaian people and, for that matter, the African personality. We are not doing this with any political thinking. We are doing this to come from a very neutral point of view.”
The Transport minister further cited historical context, saying, “We will remember that around 1946, the British Royal Air Force used that place as an air force base to carry people to war and other activities”.
He explained, “That was the time Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was at the helm of affairs. He retooled, revamped, and redeveloped the air force base into a civilian passenger airport, and at that time, the name was Accra International Airport”.
The Minister added, “We have all accepted that Accra is our capital city. It is rich in culture and also has a locational identity. Everybody, especially in the West Africa sub-region, knows that the struggle for independence had a lot to do with Accra.”
“Renaming the airport to Accra International Airport is of significant importance to the Ghanaian people and, for that matter, the African personality,” he stated.
“For the fact that the name was changed to honour somebody in his role in the 1966 coup, we feel that that history is not what Ghanaians would want to hear,” he said.
“The airport had an original name given by the first President. We should go back to that. Kwame Nkrumah himself, wherever his spirit may be, will remember that when he comes home, it will be to his original Accra International Airport,” he said.
See the post below: