The New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ashanti Regional Communications Director, Paul Yandoh, has said the Kotoka International Airport should be renamed after Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to Paul Yandoh, the Kotoka International Airport should be renamed after Ken Ofori-Atta since he’s the most important person to the country right now.
Speaking on Wontumi TV, Paul Yandoh stated, “The Kotoka International Airport should be renamed after Ken Ofori-Atta. Did Kotoka put his name there by force? Didn’t someone put it there? Today, they are saying Kotoka did a coup, so they do not want his name on the Airport.
If a coup is not a good thing, why did Ibrahim Traore come to Mahama‘s swearing-in ceremony? So if Kotoka’s name will be replace they should replace it with Ken Ofori-Atta, because if you ask the NDC, Ken Ofori-Atta is the most important person in the country right now if he does not come back things will not be fine and I am sure the cocoa that they have reduce they will say it is about Ken Ofori-Atta”.
His comments come on the back of the ongoing debate surrounding the renaming of the Kotoka International Airport to the Accra International Airport.
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.
However, 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.
Watch the video below:
“The Kotoka International Airport should be renamed after Ken Ofori Atta since he’s the most important person to the country right now”
— SIKAOFFICIAL🦍 (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) February 13, 2026
—NPP Ashanti Regional Communications Director, Paul Yandoh. pic.twitter.com/EDPCFEDUt1