By Dickson Omobola
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said members of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, rejected a proposal to pay pensioners of the defunct Nigeria Airways in 2006, prolonging their wait for their entitlements.
Fani-Kayode, now Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, said he submitted the memo after a committee chaired by the then Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, recommended the release of funds to settle the pensioners.
He said the proposal was opposed by some cabinet members who blamed former boards and management teams of the national carrier for its collapse.
Fani-Kayode spoke in response to a statement by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who said President Bola Tinubu was clearing the backlog left by previous administrations over the non-payment of pensions and gratuities to former Nigeria Airways workers.
In a post on X, Fani-Kayode said the problems that led to the airline’s collapse predated former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s return to office in 1999.
According to him, Nigeria Airways had 32 functional aircraft when Obasanjo left office as military head of state in 1979, alongside experienced pilots and crew members, a competent management team and an accountable board.
However, he said that by the time Obasanjo returned to power in 1999, the airline had only one aircraft left, which was not operational, while most of its assets had disappeared and the company was heavily indebted.
Fani-Kayode attributed the airline’s decline between 1979 and 1999 to alleged corruption, mismanagement, mounting debts and operational failures.
He said the company’s liquidation in 2004 followed years of decline and unsuccessful attempts to rescue it, including privatisation advice from the International Finance Corporation, which later withdrew.
According to him, the Obasanjo administration had little choice but to liquidate the airline rather than continue providing public funds to sustain it.
He said the liquidation left the payment of workers’ pensions as the outstanding issue.
“After a committee that was chaired by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, the then Head of Service, recommended that money should be released and paid to the pensioners, as Minister of Aviation in 2006, I presented a memo to the Federal Executive Council for that purpose and argued strongly that this was the right thing to do,” he said.
Fani-Kayode said the memo was rejected because some members of the cabinet believed former workers of the airline did not deserve pensions because of their alleged roles in its collapse.
He said he and those who supported the proposal were outnumbered during the deliberations, resulting in the matter being deferred.
According to him, the issue was revisited by the administration of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, which came to power in 2007 and paid most of the pensioners.
He added that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari continued the payments, while the remaining entitlements had now been settled under Tinubu.
Fani-Kayode commended the payment of the outstanding pensions, saying the former workers had suffered for years while waiting for their entitlements.
“It is gratifying that under your leadership the remainder of the pensions have been paid. I only wish we had done that when we were in office. The pensioners suffered immensely over the years. I have always maintained that paying them was the right thing to do,” he said.
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