Nkrumah Memorial Park endorses campaign to rename KIA after Osagyefo

The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park has endorsed mounting public calls for Ghana’s main international airport to be renamed in honour of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

In a statement signed by the Acting Executive Director of the Park, Dr. Collins Rawlings Nunyomah, management said it fully supports a campaign by a coalition of concerned citizens seeking to rename Kotoka International Airport after Ghana’s founder and leading Pan-Africanist.

The statement explained that Ghana’s principal international gateway should embody the nation’s highest ideals, values and historical foundations.

According to the Park, Dr. Nkrumah’s central role in Ghana’s independence struggle, statehood and Pan-African vision makes him the most fitting symbol to welcome the world.

“As Ghana’s principal international gateway, the national airport ought to reflect the highest ideals, values, and historical foundations of the Republic,” the statement said.

It added that Dr. Nkrumah’s contributions to the nation remain unmatched and continue to define Ghana’s place in global history.

The Park argued that renaming the airport should not be dismissed as a cosmetic or symbolic exercise. “Renaming the national airport is not a symbolic gesture; it is a moral reckoning,” the statement stressed, noting that national honours must reflect truth, justice and Ghana’s collective identity.

In recent times, calls to change the name of the airport have intensified, with critics arguing that it is inappropriate for Ghana’s only international airport to honour a man many say participated in an illegality — the 1966 coup that overthrew Dr. Nkrumah’s government.

The statement described the situation as a contradiction that undermines Ghana’s historical narrative.

“This contradiction sends a dangerous signal and normalises betrayal, subversion and moral bankruptcy,” the Park warned, adding that such a legacy should not define a key national symbol.

Dr. Nunyomah said the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park stands firmly with advocates of the renaming campaign, insisting that honouring Dr. Nkrumah at the nation’s main gateway would align Ghana’s symbols with its true historical foundations.