For over thirty years – pause there – wait a minute. For generations, we have been fed a steady diet of a specific, curated grievance. We have been told, in hushed tones and loud rallies, that there is a grand Akan conspiracy to erase the Ewe identity from the corridors of Ghanaian power. This narrative has been the lifeblood of the NDC after its formation, a political harvest reaped every four years from the fertile soil of tribal insecurity.
But on Monday, February 23, 2026, the mask didn’t just slip; it was incinerated.
President John Mahama has officially assented to the legislation stripping the name of General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka from our international airport. The man who was shot ten times at that very spot – an Ewe hero who has stood as a sentinel over our gateway to the world for decades – has been erased by another coup political tradition with tacit approval by his
own kinsmen and “ethnic family.”
And the silence that followed? It is a cemetery-grade silence.
1. The Silenced Voices of the Caucus
Where is the Ewe Parliamentary Caucus? Where is the fire-breathing Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa? Where is the “Constitutional Defender” Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor? Where is Governs Agbodza?
These are men who can spot a “tribal slight” in a misplaced comma of an NPP press release. They are the first to the cameras to decry marginalization and the last to leave the floor of Parliament when “Ewe interests” are supposedly at stake. Yet, when their own leader takes a legislative eraser to the legacy of the most prominent Ewe military figure in history, they have suddenly lost their voices. They have traded their fire for a seat at the table of the new administration.
2. A Kingdom of Selective Rage
But perhaps the most chilling part of this legislative execution is the silence of the Volta Traditional Authorities.
We know our Chiefs. We know the Ewe Chiefs. And we know the weight of their words. Most specifically, we know the influence of the Agbogbomefia, Togbe Afede XIV. This is a leader known for his principled stands on national issues, a man who has never been afraid to speak truth to power – provided that power was wearing an Elephant tie.
If an NPP administration – if Akufo-Addo or Bawumia – had so much as whispered about a name change for Kotoka, the earth would have moved. We would have heard thunderous press conferences from the Asogli and Anlo States about “ancestral desecration” and “historical erasure.” The air would have been thick with traditional “cautions.” The linguist staffs would have been raised in defense of culture. And inclusion.
Where is the warning now that this move “disturbs the peace of the nation”? Where are the invocations of the spirits of the fallen? When the NPP proposed the Agyapa deal, the stools thundered. But when John Mahama uses a legislative pen to decapitate the legacy of General Kotoka?
The drums are muffled. And the stools are silent.
3. The Question They Cannot Answer
Is the “Ewe Hero” only worth defending when his enemy is an Akan?
This is the ultimate betrayal. It suggests that tribal pride is a faucet – turned on at full blast to frustrate the NPP, but shut tightly when the NDC comes to collect its “dues.” By staying silent, these leaders – from the halls of Parliament to the palaces of the Asogli State – have signaled that the identity of their son, General Kotoka, is a small price to pay for partisan alignment.
If your “sacred” heritage can be traded for political convenience, was it ever sacred at all? Or was it just a bargaining chip in a game of political poker?
4. The Verdict of the Silence
It appears that tribal “pride” is a weapon only used against the NPP, but a sacrifice readily offered at the altar of the NDC. It seems that “discrimination” is only real when the perpetrator wears a different party color.
If you can stay silent while your hero’s name is scrubbed from the sky, simply because the man holding the brush is your party leader, then your grievances were never about tribe. They were about power.
The renaming to “Accra International Airport” is a diagnostic test of the Ghanaian soul. It has proven that in the NDC’s kingdom, two legs cease to be two legs depending on who is walking on them.
What Remains
General Kotoka died from ten bullets. But his legacy in 2026 was killed by something much colder: the selective memory and moral cowardice of those who claim to be his kinsmen.
They screamed “Akan conspiracy” for over thirty years. Built careers on it. Built churches on it. Built whole political identities on it.
Then a Gonja man – not even their blood – erased their own hero.
And they said nothing.
Not a word from Ablakwa. Not a squeak from Dafeamekpor. Not a whisper from Agbodza.
Why?
Because the man holding the pen is also the man feeding their stomachs. Because the man erasing Kotoka is the same man signing their appointments. Because their silence has a price, and they have already collected. They are in juicy political appointments at the behest of the man destroying their legacy.
What do you call people who trade a hero for a portfolio?
Greedy.
What do you call people who swallow an erasure because their egos are full?
Gluttons.
What do you call people who wear their tribe like a cloth but drop it when the feeding starts?
Shameless.
The Ewe Caucus is not defending Ewes. They are defending their own bellies. Kotoka’s name was the price. They paid it gladly. And they are still chewing.
Goodnight, General.
Your kinsmen have found a new paymaster, and your name was part of the transaction.
J. A. Sarbah
