•Says fleet fell from 32 aircraft in 1979 to 1 in 1999
Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Femi Kani-Kayode, has rejected the claim by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration was responsible for the collapse of Nigeria Airways.
Keyamo, on Wednesday, criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over comments on the unpaid pension of retired government workers, saying Atiku is now speaking out on a matter his administration helped create.
In a post on his official X handle on Wednesday, Keyamo said that when Atiku was Vice-President, the government liquidated Nigeria Airways in September 2004 and did not pay workers their pensions and gratuities.
However, Fani-Kayode responded to Keyam in a post on his verified X handle on Thursday, pushing back on the minister’s claim. Fani-Kayode, who served as Minister of Aviation from 2006, said Nigeria Airways was already facing financial constraints when Obasanjo returned to power in 1999.
He said that when Obasanjo left office as military head of state in 1979, the airline had 32 functional aircraft, experienced crew and a sound management team. But by 1999, he said, only one plane remained, and it was not working. He blamed corruption by successive management teams and boards of the airline between 1979 and 1999 for its collapse.
He said the airline was liquidated mainly because of chronic insolvency and mismanagement, with the winding-up completed in 2004 and that Obasanjo’s government was right not to continue public bailouts, adding that the decision was painful given Obasanjo’s earlier service to the airline.
“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! He met it there after he was sworn in and what he found broke his heart.
“I, as Minister of Aviation from 2006 after being redeployed from being Minister of Culture and Tourism, can confirm that. The facts are as follows: When Obasanjo left power as Military Head of State in 1979 Nigeria Airways had a total of 32 functional planes, excellent pilots and crew members, a first-class management team and an accountable Board of Directors. Nigeria Airways, at that time, was indeed the pride of the nation.
“By the time Obasanjo came back to power in 1999, 20 years later, there was only one plane left and it was not functional.
The rest had vanished together with virtually all of the company’s assets. Everything in the company had gone to the dogs. Worse still it was plagued with debts. Through those 20 years all forms of corruption were committed by the various management teams and Board of Directors of the company and it was literally gutted. The company was liquidated primarily due to chronic insolvency, operational collapse and mismanagement in its operations which took place between 1979 and 1999. The formal winding-up process culminated in 2004,” Fani-Kayide said.
Fani-Kayode said that after liquidation, the outstanding issue was pensions. He recalled that as minister in 2006 he presented a memo to the Federal Executive Council, based on a committee’s recommendation, seeking payment to pensioners. He said the memo was rejected because some cabinet members believed former staff of the airline did not deserve pensions. He said the matter was later taken up by the Yar’Adua and Buhari administrations, which paid most pensioners, and that he commended Keyamo for settling the remaining claims.