Afenyo-Markin Kicks Against Proposed Renaming of Kotoka Airport to Accra International Airport
Story: Maurice Otoo
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has strongly opposed a proposed bill seeking to rename the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to Accra International Airport (AIA), describing the move as historically insensitive and politically motivated.
Reacting to the public announcement of the bill which is to be laid in Parliament by the Majority Leader, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, Afenyo-Markin accused the proponents of attempting to erase an important part of Ghana’s history. According to him, the name Kotoka symbolizes heroism linked to the Volta Region, and any attempt to remove it could be perceived by Voltarians as an effort to wipe their contribution out of Ghana’s historical records.
He further argued that since Ghana’s independence, no successive government has made any serious attempt to change the name of the country’s main international airport, making the current proposal unprecedented.
The development has reignited public debate, with critics accusing the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of double standards. Commentators point to the NPP government’s decision on June 1, 2001, to abolish the celebration of June 4 as a national holiday, on the grounds that it commemorated a coup d’état and military mutiny.
The bill abolishing June 4 was laid in Parliament under a certificate of urgency on May 29, 2001, by the then Minister for the Interior, Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu, just days before the holiday was due to be observed.
At the time, the NPP government repealed Articles 106 and 108 of the Constitution, which require a 14-day maturity period for bills laid before Parliament.
Drawing comparisons, critics now question why June 4 was scrapped for celebrating a coup, while the national airport continues to bear the name of Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, the first coup maker and a key figure in the February 24, 1966 coup d’état “code-named Operation Cold Chop” that overthrew Ghana’s first President, Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.
As the controversy deepens, the debate has been thrown open to the Ghanaian public, with many questioning how political actors justify certain historical decisions while condemning similar actions by their opponents.
