His Excellency John Dramani Mahama
President of the Republic of Ghana
Jubilee House
Accra, Ghana
24th February 2025
Subject: A Plea to Rename Kotoka International Airport—A Cry for Ghana’s Soul
Your Excellency,
Today, the 24th of February, marks fifty-nine years since Ghana’s heart was pierced by the cruel blade of betrayal. On this day in 1966, a handful of renegades—led by Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka—staged a coup that shattered our dreams, toppled our visionary leadership, and plunged us into a darkness from which we have yet to fully emerge. It was a day when traitors dared to call themselves liberators, and the echoes of their treachery still reverberate through our nation. Today, I write to you not just as a citizen, but as a mourner of a Ghana that could have been—a Ghana stolen from us by those we should have condemned, not crowned.
For nearly six decades, we have borne the unbearable: an international airport named after a turncoat, a monument to a backstabber who traded our destiny for chaos. Kotoka International Airport stands as a daily insult, a festering wound in our national psyche. It is time—long past time—to erase this relic of disgrace from our collective memory and restore Ghana to a path of dignity. We live in an upside-down world, Your Excellency, where heroes languish in obscurity while saboteurs are exalted. This must end. I implore you, with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart, to rename Kotoka International Airport. Here are ten reasons why this change is not merely overdue, but a desperate necessity:
- A Monument to Betrayal: Kotoka’s name on our airport honors a quisling who orchestrated the 1966 coup, handing Ghana’s sovereignty to foreign puppeteers. How can we call ourselves a proud nation when we salute a man who betrayed us?
- A Stain on Our Dignity: No country with self-respect immortalizes an insurrectionist who unraveled its progress. To keep his name is to spit on the graves of those who fought for our true independence.
- A Fractured Spirit: The coup sowed seeds of division that haunt us still—political strife, economic ruin, a nation adrift. Why do we glorify a usurper whose actions birthed this chaos?
- Forgotten Heroes: Ghana brims with legends—those who built, not broke, our nation. Yet we choose to exalt a fifth columnist over the giants who lifted us up. Where is their honor?
- A Trauma Unhealed: Since that fateful day, Ghana has spiraled downward, each misstep a ripple from the stone Kotoka threw into our waters. We are a nation traumatized, and his name keeps the wound raw.
- A Lesson for Our Children: What do we teach the young when we name our gateway after a double-crosser? That betrayal is noble? That a collaborator deserves praise? We must rewrite this twisted tale.
- The Death of Patriotism: True patriotism thrives on honoring the selfless, not the selfish. By clinging to Kotoka, we signal that subversion is a virtue, that backstabbers earn statues while patriots fade.
- A False History: For too long, we’ve lived a lie, pretending a sellout was a savior. Renaming the airport is our chance to reclaim the truth—to banish this perfidious ghost from our story.
- A Call for Renewal: Ghana cannot rise while shackled to the memory of a mutineer. This change would signal a rebirth, a break from the chains of 1966 that still bind us.
- Our Face to the World: Imagine the shame—visitors landing at an airport named for a deceiver, a man who sold his country for power. What does this say about us? We deserve better.
Your Excellency, Ghana is a nation in mourning, a land weeping for its lost promise. Fifty-nine years ago, we were robbed—not just of a leader, but of a future. The compound effect of that day plays out before us: a people disillusioned, a country faltering, a spirit broken. Kotoka’s name is more than a label—it is a curse we renew each time we speak it. We cannot undo the past, but we can unshackle ourselves from its weight. This is not just a request; it is a plea from a nation on its knees, begging to stand tall again.
I urge you to act with the urgency this moment demands. Rename the airport—not for me, but for the generations who deserve to know Ghana as a land of honor, not humiliation. Let us call it Accra International Airport, a name that reflects our capital’s vitality, our people’s resilience, and our unyielding spirit—a name free of betrayal’s taint. Let us bury the fantasy we’ve lived under and face the world anew.
With a heart full of sorrow and hope,
I Ras Gad Shangox,
A Grieving Citizen of Ghana