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Founder’s Day, a darn good idea
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
The
recognition was long in coming. Under Kufuor, we saw a copious
appreciation of Nkrumah’s ideas, the capture of some of these
ideas, and the implementation and completion of some major
projects initiated by Nkrumah but left undone by his untimely
departure from office. And, finally, under Mills, we have a
proposal for a Founder’s Day to honor this great son of Ghana.
We are late with the honor. The
whole world has done so earlier, recognizing his worth even when
some were opposed to the ideas he stood for. Now we can safely
cash in as countrymen.
But establishing the Founder’s Day
will not abjure the folly of February 24, 1966, a day of infamy
for all Ghanaians. We share collectively, regardless of
ideology, tribe, or religion, in this grand folly.
However, and true to some
unreasonable side of our nature, we have also enshrined this
folly in the name of our only international airport after the
man who was responsible for the February 24 coup – Colonel E. K.
Kotoka.
Kotoka’s standing memory – Accra
International Airport, absolutely does not juxtapose well with
the Founder’s Day idea.
Who was Kotoka and how did he come
to deserve this honor of having our only international airport
named after him? He came by this honor because he deposed
Nkrumah in a coup in 1966 with the help of the CIA. For this
infamy, Accra, our capital, the natural and original name of the
airport, was stripped from the airport and the name Kotoka was
put in its place.
So, now that we have belatedly
realized how important Nkrumah was, by establishing a founder’s
day for him, do we keep the name Kotoka on our airport or revert
to the old name Accra International Airport? And if we were to
keep the name Kotoka, what would be the reason for it? It will
take a sure twist of logic to come up with that reason.
Simply put, why honor Nkrumah if Kotoka was right?
Up to 1966, very little was known
of Kotoka as a soldier. There was nothing that distinguished him
from the average officer in the Ghana Armed Forces until he was
approached by the CIA to create a coup. Unlike Sergeant Francis
Adjetey of the Christiansborg Cross Road fame, a true hero and a
patriot who was killed in a protest march against the colonials,
Kotoka had nothing in his service profile that showed courage in
the line of patriotism.
Adjetey, unfortunately, had
nothing significant named after him. He was a Ghanaian, from the
same tribe whose land the Accra International Airport sits.
There was another soldier of
stellar character, Major General Charles Barwah, a Northerner,
then Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces, who displayed his
loyalty to Nkrumah by standing firm against Kotoka and his band
of mutineers. He was shot dead on the spot. The airport was not
named after him.
Certainly, there was no lack of
military and civilian heroes, going back to ancient times, to
name the airport after. But when it was decided to rename the
airport, Kotoka was chosen instead – because he toppled Nkrumah
and later in a mutiny against his regime was killed on the spot.
If Nkrumah was that thoroughly bad a
ruler, to the point of needing a drastic measure such as a
violent coup by Kotoka to oust him, then why must we honor
Nkrumah today?
Kotoka was an officer who
reluctantly served with the Ghana army in support of the United
Nations peace action in the Congo.
His revolt on February
24, 1966, was based on his assumption that Nkrumah was getting
ready for further action in Rhodesia against the white rebel
regime of Rhodesia.
He was against the Pan-Africanist venture intention of Nkrumah.
Thus, Kotoka, the soldier whose very
act indicated that he was against disturbing the colonial order
on the continent of Africa, had an international airport named
after him by the sovereign state of Ghana. Unbelievable!
No nation honors its heroes and
villains with the same breath. There is a memorial for George
Washington in the United States. There is none for Benedict
Arnold. Kotoka International Airport and the Founder’s Day idea
cannot coexist.
Benedict Arnold was the
quintessential traitor to the American Revolution. He was a
general of the Continental Army during the American
Revolutionary War, with an illustrious military career, unlike
Kotoka. As a general
in the Continental Army, he tried to surrender a very important
strategic point to the British during the war and failed. He
thereafter defected to the British side to fight as a loyalist.
His name has become the epitome of treason in America to this
day.
In Kotoka, we see Benedict Arnold.
He was a tool that was used effectively by the CIA against Ghana
and Nkrumah. He was
the first to initiate the notion of the right of the army to
interfere with our political affairs. After his example, coups
became the order of the day, ushering in a tailspin of unbridled
violence that would last for two decades in Ghana.
The coup turned Kotoka, a mediocre
colonel, into a general in a short time.
Shortly after becoming the general, a counter-coup led by
a junior officer, Lt. Arthur, would cut short his life.
His tragic death should be regretted only because it was
brought on by an unnecessary act of his own making.
Such a man does not deserve the
monumental honor of naming an international airport after him.
The naming ridicules the collective common sense of the nation,
and it is a negative advert of the nation’s image.
Anytime a light flashes on the departure or arrival board
anywhere in the world, the curious may know it as the flight
from the land of the politically clueless, the flight from the
airport of the man who toppled “the dictator” Nkrumah.
The name Accra International
Airport needs to be brought back. Some say that the people of
the Volta Region, Kotoka’s home region, would be offended by the
removal of his name. But, if tribal or regional considerations
are to be considered, then what about those of the Gas to whom
the airport land belongs? Honoring
a bogus hero only underlines the insult for the Gas.
That said, we are about to
recognize the greatest Ghanaian and the Founder of the nation –
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. There should be no room left on this platform
of honor for Kotoka, another Benedict Arnold.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com,
Washington, DC, October 4, 2009
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