What Is In A Name?

The Oxford English dictionary defines a name as “a word or set of words by which a person or thing is known, addressed, or referred to”; a name, in effect, defines a person, a place, a community or a thing.

This piece is necessitated by the issue of names of public places that seems to be preoccupying our media, instead of the latter focusing on informing and prompting developmental issues in Ghana. The question I seek to have answered is this: “What is in a name?” The debates around changing the names of public places seem to be the latest passion of Ghanaian politicians. As an ordinary citizen preoccupied with developing my career and serving my nation one day, I keep wondering what the fuss is over name changes – to change or not to change! The first was the Accra Sports Stadium, which was changed to Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in 2004 and then reverted to Accra Sports Stadium a few months ago. The question is: What is the fuss anyway? The ordinary Ghanaian on the streets refers to the Ohene Djan Stadium, now Accra Sports Stadium, as “stadium,” period! The name change took place because the Ga Traditional Council and some elders of the Ga state petitioned the Accra Metropolitan Authority to remove the name “Ohene Djan Sports Stadium,” because the stadium is on Ga land; if it should be renamed, they argued, it should be done to honour a Ga hero in sports other than Ohene Djan, who was not of Ga origin. For me the question is: What is the fuss anyway? Are we not all Ghanaians? Why is the Ga Traditional Council not preoccupied with improving the lot of the Ga people (such as the lives of fishermen along the coast of Accra) and developing Ga traditions to make them a major tourist attraction and a source of income for the Ga people, instead of wasting precious time on the name to be given a stadium on Ga land?

A couple of weeks ago, there was another widely read argument about renaming Kotoka International Airport after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, as suggested by Dr. Agyeman Badu Akosa, an Nkrumahist. The debate became heated with the pronouncement by Professor Mike Ocquaye, who is the second deputy speaker of the current Parliament as well as a political science lecturer, suggesting that the name “Kotoka” be maintained. Professor Ocqyuaye went on to state that Gen. Kotoka, the man who led a coup d'etat to topple Ghana’s first elected government, was a hero in his own right, since, as he put it, “What Kotoka stood for is what we are all holding on to – the 1992 Constitution and the fight for the fundamental human rights of Ghanaians.” Well, in my opinion, this statement is debatable. For me, a coup d'etat is a coup d’état and every coup maker will have reason they perceive as “legitimate” reason why they need(ed) to stage a coup d’état. Therefore a seeming “legitimate” reason doesn’t make any coup d’état honourable or justified. Kotoka’s coup was no different, since it unseated a constitutionally elected government, period! This sad event should not be justified in anyway, whatsoever.

A coup d'etat is right if it favours a person and wrong if it does not. What hypocrisy! The learned professor simple goofed by that statement. Having said that, I do not intend to go into the merits and/or demerits of the professor’s statement.

The simple question is this: Why would we Ghanaians want to focus our energies on arguments about the renaming of Ghana’s only international airport, instead of concentrating on how to find the resources to build other world-class international airports? With the latest heartthrob of Ghanaians being “the discovery of oil,” I think politicians should focus their energies on raising the requisite funds to build a world-class international airport somewhere closer to the oil in the Western Region, instead of wasting time arguing about the name of the current airport.

Of course, the most recent debate is that of the new government edifice – whether to call it Flagstaff House or Jubilee House. Flagstaff House was the official residence of the first president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The building was then abandoned for several decades. It was rebuilt during the NPP government’s time in office, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations to be the official seat of government and subsequently renamed Jubilee House. However, in the past few days the Jubilee House seems to be making the headlines over its name. Is it Jubilee House or is it Flagstaff House, after it was reported that the name Flagstaff House was inscribed on said building? Well, the deputy minister of information, Mr. James Agyenim-Boateng, has said that “there has not been a renaming of the palace because its original name, the Flagstaff House, has not been statutorily changed to Jubilee House.”

The point is that whether we call it Jubilee House or Flagstaff House, it is a house! The most important thing that Ghanaian politicians and opinion leaders should be doing right now is focusing on improving the lot of the ordinary Ghanaian, instead of wasting taxpayers’ money trying to rename edifices. Can I conclude that the priorities of Ghanaians are distorted and we need to reassess our priorities as a nation? What difference will “Ohene Djan Stadium” or “Accra Sports Stadium” make in the development of sports in Ghana? What difference will “Kotoka International Airport,” “Kwame Nkrumah International Airport” or better still “Accra International Airport” make in the development and growth of the aviation industry in Ghana? Likewise, what difference will Flagstaff House or Jubilee House make in the administration of the nation Ghana?

The writer, Naa Wellington, is a concerned citizen of Ghana who can be reached at [email protected].