Private legal practitioner and historian Yaw Anokye Frimpong has revealed that the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) was originally intended to be named after the renowned Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa, but opposition from some Ashanti sub-chiefs prevented the plan from materialising.

Speaking on Upfront on JoyNews on Wednesday, February 4, while contributing to discussions surrounding calls to rename the airport, Mr Anokye said the idea dated back to the era of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

He explained that Dr Nkrumah, after attaining internal self-government in 1951 and becoming Prime Minister in 1952, was focused on positioning Ghana as the centre of Africa’s liberation struggle.

“It was Nkrumah who gave us the Ghana Navy and then the Ghana Air Force. He came to meet the Ghana Army or the Gold Coast Army,” he said.

“And look at his idea of having a united Africa, helping every African country to get independence, using Ghana as a base to spread the freedom fighting. He needed an international airport.”

According to him, the airport was built deliberately for international use and not just domestic travel.

“So immediately, he set about to build that airport not for local use but for international consumption. By 1957, he had completed it already, and then thousands of people would come here,” he explained, adding that the Ambassador Hotel was also constructed to host foreign dignitaries because Ghana lacked world-class hotels at the time.

Mr Anokye said that when it was time to name the airport, Dr Nkrumah wanted it to bear the name of a woman, a decision influenced by his mentor, Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey.

“Don’t forget Nkrumah’s teacher was Aggrey at Achimota School, and it was Aggrey who used to tell his students that if you educate a man, you educate an individual; if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation,” he elaborated.

He said Dr Nkrumah admired Aggrey deeply and adopted many of his ideas, including his views on women and nation-building.

The historian revealed that Dr Nkrumah discussed the matter with Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, agreeing that if the airport was to symbolise Ghana’s greatness, it should be named after a great Ghanaian.

“And then Nkrumah, putting his pen down to paper, discovered that it was one famous Ghanaian he could immediately remember, who incidentally and luckily for him was a woman,” he said.

That woman, he explained, was Yaa Asantewaa, who led the Ashanti people in 1900 during the War of the Golden Stool to protect the sacred symbol of Ashanti authority from British capture.

Mr Anokye placed her resistance in a wider historical context, noting how colonial powers had removed important cultural artefacts from other countries.

“In almost every country you could imagine, these westerners preferred something of value, a great heritage, irreplaceable value, taken away from the people,” he said, stressing that the Golden Stool was never captured despite the defeat of the Ashanti forces.

“Once they were not able to take the Golden Stool, irrespective of the fact that Ashanti was technically defeated, the same technicality says that they won the war,” he added, noting that Nkrumah, a student of African history, understood this significance.

According to Mr Anokye, Nkrumah believed naming the airport after Yaa Asantewaa would command global respect for Ghana and also promote female empowerment.

“When he told Nana, Nana was so excited. Then he called a meeting of the Ashanti chiefs and broke the news to them,” he said.

However, the plan was strongly opposed by some sub-chiefs, who rejected the idea on political grounds.

“They said, ‘We have a conflict, and we have disassociated ourselves. Kwame Nkrumah is a CPP person. If he has not gotten any female’s name to put on the airport, he should go and look for a CPP woman to name it after. It will not be our royal, Yaa Asantewaa,’” he recounted.

Despite pleas from the Asantehene, the opposition remained firm.

“So what would Nkrumah do? He named it Accra International Airport,” Mr Anokye said, adding that the President deliberately avoided naming the facility after himself.

“He could have named it Kwame International Airport, but he made it Accra International Airport symbolically to let you know that he never aimed at putting his name on it.”

His comments follow the intention of the government to change the Kotoka International Airport and Accra International Airport, a decision that has drawn huge debate among Ghanaians.

While a section believes the move is unnecessary, others are of the view that the airport should not glorify Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, a military ruler who orchestrated a coup against Ghana's first president.