In this round of euphoria raised by the JDM-led NDC government through their Majority Leader in our House of Parliament, #MahamaAyariga, on the matter of changing the name of Kotoka International Airport to Accra International, I have felt very irritated.
Not only that. I continue to nurse a sadness I began to feel 3 years or so ago about Ghanaians. The irritation is political, and the sadness is social.
I will try not to spend too much reading time on both, as my real issue this time is sociopolitical.
The irritation stems from the continued reality that we collectively do not seem to realize, want to face, or challenge. That reality is that the government of Mr Mahama truly does not have anything progressive and developmental to offer Ghanaians.
Their concept of a “reset” is to reposition themselves to gain from the true gains created by the NPP. It happened between 2009 and 2017, when they took office after the NPP government of President Kufuor. It is happening again after Akufo-Addo’s NPP government.
The emotional reaction to this point will be obvious. I accept that. But after that, take a step back and review what you’ve done.
Is this the governance we want, when the world is moving at a fast rate and our young – our youth – are growing old. Do we want to busy ourselves thinking ahead, or do we want to go backward with such irrelevancies as changing the airport’s name?
Changing the name of the airport becomes relevant when we have spent time getting our streets cleaned, our sanitation properly managed, and our laws and byelaws enforced by authorities and an uncorrupted Police and obeyed by a more responsible citizenry. And there are many more such matters to deal with!
My sadness comes from realizing that Ghanaians seem more interested in bringing people down quickly, without finding out the truth.
We are collectively not our brothers’ keepers.
We truly do not give a damn about our collective future. We only care about our individual growth. We are not as selfless as we like to portray ourselves. We do well with thinking about ourselves individually, but not about our families or communities anymore.
This character manifests itself in our rejection of effective policies meant to truly and properly put us on the right path to true growth. How does changing the airport’s name bring us true growth? Our culture sector has been abused for decades, and we are still doing it.
I will come back to this later and expand on the two areas. This time, I focus on the NDC standards and those of Ghanaians. Please notice: “NDC and Ghanaians”. This means it includes all other parties, including my own NPP, and the rest of us, the citizenry.
I raise NDC because they have tended to lead in such matters. I stand to be corrected.
The sources of my motivation to put out a position are posts on fb by Kabral Blay Amihere and Socrate Safo on this matter.
Kabral’s article is based on a prediction of this action. It provides a history of events related to this matter in recent times. It is not primarily for or against the decision. I enjoyed it. Very educational.
Socrates raises the question of who Kotoka was. He also does not take a position on the matter. I enjoyed that too and found it enlightening. I knew the history, but he refreshed it.
I found both intriguing, and they provoked a thought. “What standards do we have on matters of this nature?”
The proposal to change this name was put to us at an interesting time: within the week of the 4th of February, the anniversary of the death of Dr. JB Danquah.
The argument for changing the name is that General Kotoka was a key architect in the successful coup against President Nkrumah. Three figures in this narrative who are relevant in this discussion.
Why did the coup happen? Why did Danquah die in prison? Why was there a counter-coup attempt? Who was the source of all this?
There are more questions.
Why is it that we are eager to look the other way on matters of this nature? Why do we not want others who left a history behind to be recognized? What is our fear? Is this not a bane of our growth?
Dr. Danquah left a long resume of achievements we benefit from today. We will continue to benefit from them for a very long time. It has been 61 years since his passing.
Let us choose one of his achievements and see what has been happening since its establishment. He is credited with founding the University of Ghana.
This was in 1949. The institution is in its 97th year. President John Mahama and Mr. Ayariga are beneficiaries one way or the other. Yet they have fought against naming the university after Danquah.
President Nkrumah, at the center of this matter, has numerous accolades. We will not fight against that. But is it not true what they say about his role in the imprisonment and the cause of Danquah’s death? Or the oppressive nature of his governance, which led to the coup Kotoka led?
General Kotoka, in the eyes of the liberated at the time, was a hero. He helped take us out of a buildup of oppression over many years.
But the question must be, why did he seek to liberate the country? What is the difference between his action and that of someone like JJ Rawlings, the founder of the NDC, a party generated out of a coup d’état against a popularly elected government?
This comparison may not be the best analogy given the details, since the 31st December coup was not popular, but humour me. Yes. More controversy to decipher.
But put the emotional responses aside for a moment and answer this: is this change of name the most important and relevant action for Ghana and Ghanaians at this time?
If we believe it is, then let the true history be told, the real questions answered, and then our youth will know the kind of nation we have been and the kind of leadership and future we are offering them.
If it isn’t, and I believe it is not, let us let Mr Mahama, Mr Ayariga, and the NDC government know that. Our youth and our future deserve better than this pettiness. There are more important things to worry about.
