Naming Port Harcourt International Airport after Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba politician with no historical, political, or emotional connection to Rivers State, is a serious insult. It is an insult to the men and women who built this state. It is an insult to every Rivers indigene. And it is a personal insult to me, Kio Amachree, and to the Amachree family.
Let us stop pretending this is a harmless honour. It is not. It is historical erasure dressed up as national unity.
Rivers State did not fall from the sky. It was created through hard negotiations, political courage, and personal sacrifice during one of the most dangerous periods in Nigeria’s history. My late father, Chief Godfrey Kio Jaja Amachree, sat down with the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, at the height of the civil war era. He served as Gowon’s special envoy to the United States, tasked with a clear and difficult mission: convince the Americans to back the Federal Government. That mission succeeded.
Gowon was so satisfied with my father’s performance that he entrusted him with extraordinary responsibilities. Among them: the political groundwork for the creation of Rivers State. This is not folklore. It is part of Nigeria’s post-war statecraft, even if some now prefer amnesia.
The first governor of Rivers State, Alfred Diete-Spiff, operated directly from my father’s Lagos law chambers. That is a matter of record. When Rivers State was born, there was no ready-made treasury. My father stepped in. Through his own institution, Pan-African Bank, and through his personal funds, he financed early projects of the new state. Millions of naira, at a time when millions actually meant something, went into making Rivers State functional.
That is how states are built. Not by speeches. By action.
So when I see the most important gateway into Rivers State — Port Harcourt International Airport — handed over in name to a man who had nothing whatsoever to do with Rivers State, I see spite. I see tribal calculation. I see contempt for minority history.
Nobody is denying Awolowo’s place in Nigerian history. But national importance does not give you ownership of every region’s landmarks. Rivers State is not a spare room in someone else’s house.
If an airport in Rivers State must carry a name, let it carry the name of a Rivers man or woman. A founding father. A true son of the soil. Or at the very least someone whose life and struggle are inseparable from the Niger Delta — such as Ken Saro-Wiwa, whose name alone speaks to sacrifice, injustice, and global recognition.
What has happened here is not an accident. It is a deliberate act of disregard. Those behind this decision knew exactly what they were doing. And yes, I will say it plainly: it is traitorous behaviour toward Rivers State history.
I am no daydreamer. I am done treating this matter with kid gloves. This is now priority number one for me. The name Awolowo should be removed from Port Harcourt International Airport forthwith, and the honour restored to those who actually made Rivers State possible.
History matters. Memory matters. And Rivers State will not be written out of its own story.
Kio Amachree
