By Kwadwo Afari
Why the persistent interest in renaming Kotoka International Airport? The answer is straightforward: the name Kotoka unsettles John Mahama’s conscience, the self-styled acolyte whose “reset agenda” mirrors the authoritarian instincts of those who would be dictators. His actions, and those of his supporters, continue to weaken the already fragile bonds that have failed to unite us since independence in 1957.
To ignore the facts of Kwame Nkrumah’s authoritarian regime is to abandon Ghana’s ongoing quest for individual freedom. If Nkrumah’s authoritarianism is dismissed as a mere invention of his detractors, then truth itself collapses. Without truth, there can be no critique of political abuse—only spectacle. And in such a spectacle, the largest bloc in Parliament controls the purse that pays for the brightest lights.
Authoritarian trajectory
This authoritarian trajectory culminated in Nkrumah’s downfall. On February 24, 1966, while he was on an official visit to China, a military coup ended his rule. His supporters, for obvious reasons, branded the coup illegitimate. The new leaders formed the eight-member National Liberation Council, dissolved the Convention People’s Party (CPP), and suspended the one-party constitution.
As Ghana’s first president, Nkrumah launched ambitious economic projects, many of which proved unsustainable. The economy faltered, and in his bid to regain control, he tightened his grip on currency, raised taxes, and pursued nationalization—all in service of an industrialized socialist vision. By 1963, shortages and inflation had eroded public confidence. Facing growing opposition, Nkrumah turned to repression.
PDA
The Preventive Detention Act (PDA) allowed him to jail critics without trial for up to five years. In 1964, he staged a referendum—heavily rigged—that cemented the CPP as the sole legal party and himself as president for life. Parliament became a rubber stamp, and Nkrumah dismissed Chief Justice Sir Arku Korsah, pushing through legislation that made him the final arbiter of all legal cases. Press freedom collapsed, silencing dissent.
The CPP, acting as a political monolith, sought to impose socialism on a resistant populace. Citizens opposed this concentration of power, preferring liberty under democracy to the suffocating grip of a one-party state. Resistance grew, sometimes violently, as Nkrumah’s regime met protest with force and opponents responded in kind. Violence scarred both sides.
We must not tell a history that absolves Nkrumah and the CPP of their excesses. To do so is to erase the sacrifices of ordinary Ghanaians who demanded true freedom and liberty, and to forget that authoritarianism—whether cloaked in nationalism or socialism—remains democracy’s most enduring threat.
Kwame Nkrumah’s appeal lay in a false vision of liberty or law and in the real emotional rewards of tribal combat and the spectacle of a leader who punished the tribe’s enemies. Nkrumah exercised power on his personal whim, unchecked by other branches or organs of government. What happened under his rule was not ordinary partisan conflict but the definition of dictatorship itself—a system in which power was concentrated in a single person.
Why all this history?
Why all this history? Why not simply focus on current policy issues? There are reasons. First, we study events such as the 1966 coup to remind ourselves: never again. Never again must such authoritarian excesses be allowed to take root. The study of history is our best guide to the present and the future. Freedom is best defended when philosophical claims are anchored in historical truth.
Kotoka’s 1966 coup was not about factories, Tema motorway, the Akosombo Dam, or the economy per se; it was about freedom and liberty. It was about the individual’s right to pursue happiness, the importance of the family, religious affiliations, private enterprises, and voluntary organizations in preserving liberty, and the dangers of unchecked power. It was about the necessity of dividing and constraining political authority to protect citizens’ rights.
Since 1966, history has illuminated the development of Ghana’s multi-party democracy, including the ideas that shaped the 1992 Constitution. The coup set the pace. Yet today, the National Democratic Congress under John Mahama, together with groups inclined toward authoritarianism, attempts to distort this legacy. Through revisionist accounts of Kotoka and hagiographic portrayals of dictatorship, they seek to use their parliamentary majority to sow division.
Understanding key
Ghanaians must understand what makes a nation truly great. Greatness does not come from trivial acts of vindictiveness or partisan revisionism. Kotoka’s coup was greeted with jubilation and hope because it promised more freedom than Nkrumah’s regime allowed. Renaming Kotoka International Airport to Accra International Airport will not erase the importance of that great Ewe man in our history.
The truly great leaders are those who fight for liberty, refuse to wield power for narrow ends, rule under the law, and build inclusive democratic institutions. History teaches us that revisionism can erase truth but not kill it. To nullify Kotoka’s patriotic commitment, his role in restoring multi-party democracy, through systematic partisan hatred will not strengthen our democracy. It will weaken it and, in the long run, it will imperil the very freedoms that generations of Ghanaians have struggled to preserve.
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