A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has defended former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, insisting that the airline’s collapse resulted from years of mismanagement, corruption and mounting debts before Obasanjo returned to power in 1999.
Fani-Kayode, who served as the Minister of Aviation in 2006, said Obasanjo inherited a virtually collapsed airline and had little choice but to liquidate it in 2004.
He stated this in a post on his X account on Thursday while responding to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who had earlier accused former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of hypocrisy over his comments on Nigeria’s economic hardship and insecurity.
In a post published on Wednesday, Keyamo accused the administration in which Atiku served as vice-president of liquidating Nigeria Airways in September 2004, leaving thousands of workers without jobs and their pensions and gratuities unpaid.
The minister said the outstanding entitlements had remained unresolved for years, claiming that some former workers died while waiting for their benefits.
He added that President Bola Tinubu had approved and released N36bn to settle the outstanding obligations, with beneficiaries already receiving payment alerts.
Keyamo also accused Atiku of taking credit for the achievements of the Obasanjo administration when convenient while distancing himself from controversial decisions.
Responding to the debate, Fani-Kayode said it was unfair to blame Obasanjo for the airline’s collapse, arguing that its decline had begun long before his return to office.
“In fairness to President Obasanjo the Nigeria Airways ‘mess’, as you have described it, was established before he came back to power in 1999.
“And it was indeed a mess but it was not of Obasanjo’s making!
