Fani-Kayode Faults Keyamo, Defends Atiku Over Nigeria Airways Collapse

A former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has faulted his successor, Festus Keyamo, over claims that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was liable for the N36 billion pension liabilities of the defunct Nigeria Airways.

Keyamo had on Wednesday blamed Atiku for the airline’s woes, accusing him of abandoning the pension liabilities following its liquidation. He stated President Bola Tinubu’s administration had cleared the excellent debt.

But Fani-Kayode, who served as aviation minister beneath former President Olusegun Obasanjo, stated Nigeria Airways had been crippled by a long time of corruption, mismanagement and mounting money owed lengthy earlier than the administration got here to energy in 1999.

In a publish on his X deal with, @realFFK, on Thursday, he argued that Obasanjo inherited a collapsed nationwide service and that its liquidation in 2004 was mandatory to stop additional waste of public funds.

Fani-Kayode recalled that Nigeria Airways had 32 practical plane, competent pilots and crew, an efficient administration workforce and an accountable board when Obasanjo left workplace as army head of state in 1979.

“By the time Obasanjo came back to power in 1999, 20 years later, there was only one plane left and it was not functional,” he stated.
“The rest had vanished together with virtually all of the company’s assets. Everything in the company had gone to the dogs.”

Rather than blame Atiku, Fani-Kayode attributed the airline’s collapse to successive administration groups and boards that ran the corporate between 1979 and 1999, alleging that corruption and mismanagement had destroyed a once-proud nationwide service.

He additionally rejected solutions that Atiku alone was liable for the choice to liquidate the airline, stressing that it was a collective resolution of the Obasanjo administration.

“Whatever decision was finally taken was a collective one,” he stated, including that members of the administration shared duty for its penalties.

Keyamo’s criticism of Atiku seems linked to the previous vice-president’s place as chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) which he headed throughout the Obasanjo administration.