Founder’s Day, darned good idea, not when "Kotoka International Airport" still stands.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

February 22, 2009

The recognition for Nkrumah was long in coming.  But under President Kufuor, we saw a copious appreciation of his ideas, the capture of some, and the implementation and completion of certain major projects put in motion by the first president; mostly canceled or left unfinished because of his untimely departure from office.

And, finally, under Mills, we have a proposal for a Founder’s Day to honor Nkrumah, this great son of Ghana and Africa. 

The honor is late in coming, but still, there is the pleasure of knowing that it is still coming, even this late at a time when the entire world had already done the recognition. 

And more so when those outsiders, with self-interest that was opposed to Nkrumah’s, had turned around to accept him as a great man. 

Now we, his countrymen, can safely cash in on the merit of this great man.

But recognition of the Founder’s Day cannot abjure the folly of February 24, 1966, the day Nkrumah was overthrown.  

The recognition should rather highlight the perverse side of our nature for naming our only international airport after the man who overthrew the Nkrumah regime – Colonel E. K. Kotoka.

A standing memorial for Kotoka – Accra International Airport - absolutely does not juxtapose well to the idea of a Founder’s Day for Nkrumah.

Who was Kotoka and how did he come to deserve this honor? 

He came by this honor because he was the main conduit for the removal of Nkrumah in 1966.  Contemporary writings have revealed that he was used by the CIA to oust Nkrumah out of power.

For Kotoka’s infamy, the Accra Airport was stripped of its original name.  So, now, with Founder’s Day coming, do we still keep the Kotoka banner?   

Only by a sure twist of logic could we come up with a single reason why the name should remain.

Up until 1966, though Kotoka had gotten earlier a distinguished service medal from Nkrumah for service in the Congo, he was still an undistinguished officer.  The distinguished service recognition should only serve as one of the ironies of fate. 

Before Kotoka, there were veterans of WWII, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Patrick Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey, who got murdered by a British Major Armery at the Osu Cross Roads on February 28, 1948.

They died unarmed in a protest march to present a petition to the colonial government at the Osu Castle. 

These men had come from the front lines of WWII, fighting for the British Empire. And they were on a patriotic mission and venture that propelled further the agitation for self-government. 

Sad to say, none of these heroic men of February 28, 1948, had the massive national honor of the naming of an edifice like an international airport after him.

Suffice to say Kotoka had nothing in his service profile that marched the patriotic courage exhibited by these erstwhile WWII veterans.

There was another soldier of stellar character, Major General Charles Barwah, then Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces, who fell victim to the Kotoka 1966 coup. 

By defending Nkrumah, Barwah had displayed loyalty to the state as constitutionally required.  But Kotoka and his band of mutineers shot him dead on the spot.

There was no shortage of historic personality names that could have fitted the prestige of the Accra Airport.  Instead, Kotoka’s name was used and for the sole reason that he had toppled Nkrumah from power.

Some deny the above as the reason.  They claim the honor was given because Kotoka was killed at the same airport on April 17, 1967.  But they forget that Kotoka's death was attributable to a chain reaction, a counter-coup that was made possible because of the February 1966 coup.

Lt. Samuel Arthur, Lt. Moses Yeboah, and 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku, all junior officers, were the leaders of that counter-coup that led to Kotoka’s demise; the core impetus for which flowed back to his ouster of Nkrumah.

As the so-called "glorious revolution" of February 24, 1966, had insisted, Nkrumah was that thoroughly bad a ruler that only a brave soldier as Kotoka could have ousted him from power. 

In reality, Kotoka was the leader of a military revolt; very disgruntled after his return from the Congo in 1962, in the service of Ghana’s support of the United Nations mission in that troubled country. 

He justified his action for the 1966 coup partly on the grounds of his Congo mission; that Nkrumah’s rule should end because the latter wanted to use the Ghana army to support other freedom fighters on the continent, as was done in the Congo.

By his admission, Kotoka was against disturbing the remnants of the colonial order in Africa, at a time when the newly sovereign state of Ghana was eager to inspire the rest of Africa to throw off the colonial yoke. 

A forward-looking sovereign nation like Ghana, committed to the emancipation of Africa, needed to honor true heroes committed to the cause of continental freedom. The opposite was the mentality of the man for whom the airport in Accra was named.

But nations do not honor their heroes and villains in the same breath. Several memorials stand to honor George Washington in the United States today. There is none for Benedict Arnold, a hero of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War against the British, but who chose in 1779 to defect to the British side.

Thereafter, Benedict became the embodiment of treason for all to this day. 

In Ghana, our Benedict was Kotoka; a man who had betrayed the forward movement of the African continent by causing its foremost general, Nkrumah, to be removed from power by foreign interests.

Benedict disappeared.  But in Ghana, Kotoka became our most revered national soldier, with an airport named after him.  This crude mentality cannot and should not be maintained.

Kotoka's connection with the CIA has long been established. And his coup example of 1966 had since inspired others as a right to interfere with our political processes and governance. The result was the unbridled tailspin, mostly characterized by upheavals and violence that tore our sovereignty into shreds.

Kotoka’s death at the airport was tragic, but it was brought about by the very act he had initiated on February 24, 1966.  His death here should not serve as justification for such a national honor. 

To continue with Kotoka’s name on the airport connotes a negative understanding of our reality, especially on the scale such as echoed throughout terminals around the globe. 

Anytime a pending flight to or from Ghana flashes on boards at terminals around the world, the curious may get to know that it is either going to or coming from the country of the clueless who helped the West to topple the African icon, Nkrumah.

Certainly, the Kotoka name gets a big wink of approval from the very forces that undermined our progress and continue to do the same today.  And has today become a symbol of the West's victory over us.

The Kotoka name should come off the Accra International Airport. And there is no better moment to do so than the day we create the Founder’s Day to honor Nkrumah.

Some say to bring down the Kotoka name will disturb some tribal nerves.  But, should this be the fear, then why should the Gas, whose land the airports stands on, not be offended by the neglect of Sgt. Adjetey?

For the sake of the national interest, we need to rethink why we create national monuments.  The basic requirement should be the national interest.  Was Kotoka aided by the CIA or not?

We are about to recognize the greatest Ghanaian and the Founder of the nation – Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. There should be no room left on the national platform for the likes of Benedict Arnold.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, February 22, 2009 

Permission to publish:  Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited.