Kwesi Pratt Jnr is the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper
The Managing Editor of Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has launched a scathing attack on the leadership of both the Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament, describing the ongoing debate over the renaming of Kotoka International Airport (KIA) as “lacking any substance and childish in the extreme.”
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana on February 4, 2026, the veteran journalist expressed shock at the quality of discourse coming from both caucuses, accusing them of reducing a national discussion to “tribal cards” and ethnic sentiment.
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“As a matter of fact, reasons given for changing the name, reasons given for retaining the name, lack any substance, let me be very mild. They lack any substance. Childish in the extreme,” he fumed.
Pratt specifically criticised Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga for suggesting that the airport should be renamed because of its geographical location and the origins of the land, calling the logic “unbelievable.”
“You have a majority leader announcing that the name of the airport is going to be changed, and the primary reason for changing it is that it’s located in Accra, and the land used for its construction was given by the people of Accra. By logical extension, everything in Accra should be named Accra. Unbelievable. Is that how our leaders think? It’s so very shocking,” he stated.
He also lamented the implication that keeping the current name is being framed as an affront to the local people.
“So by logical extension, if their chiefs give land for the construction of anything, it should be named Accra. And yet the naming of Kotoka International Airport is seen as a crime against the Ga people. That’s problematic,” he argued.
Pratt, also did not spare Minority Leader Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, accusing him of framing the issue through a purely ethnic lens.
“Then you move on to the minority leader. Oh my goodness, he’s even worse than the majority leader. His reason for opposing the change is that the name belongs to an Ewe or somebody from the Volta Region, and that if you change it, you must necessarily annoy the people of the Volta Region. He reduces it to ethnicity-begotten, nonsensical tribalism,” Pratt expressed.
The Insight editor expressed deep disappointment that such a “backward” debate was occurring within the nation’s highest law-making body rather than in what he described as a “God-forsaken ghetto.”
“Are you not shocked? This is the level of debate. Now, if this debate was probably taking place in some God-forsaken ghetto of drug addicts or so on, no problem, that’s the level you would expect. But this debate is taking place in Parliament,” he said.
“The foremost law-making institution in my country, this is the level of the debate. Can you believe it? I’m so shocked. The ethnic argument is so childish and backward, it’s unbelievable,” he continued.
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Pratt concluded by demanding that the leadership of the House move away from tribal politics and present arguments that serve the national interest.
“…Whether you are for it or against it, come with sensible arguments and stop playing this tribal card. Yes, both of them are playing tribal cards. So if you are against the renaming, then you are against the Ga people. If you are for the renaming, then you are against the Ewes,” he concluded.
MAG/MA
#TrendingGH: Watch some Ghanaians react to proposed renaming of Kotoka International Airport:
