By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo SAN on Wednesday disclosed that President Bola Tinubu is clearing the mess former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar left behind in the liquidation of Nigeria Airways.
Keyamo who made the claim in a post on his X account, accused Atiku of “hypocrisy at its peak.” Her said the President has released N36 billion to settle workers’ unpaid entitlements.
He was reacting to a message by Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, who blamed the Tinubu administration for the rising cost of living in the country.
Atiku said “Bola made life expensive” and promised, “I will work to make life affordable again.” He also urged registered voters to collect their Permanent Voter Cards PVCs.
Keyamo said he would speak only on the sector he heads. “Let me just talk only about the sector that I head, Aviation,” he wrote.
He recalled that “In September, 2004, when you were Vice-President, your Government woke up one morning and liquidated Nigeria Airways, throwing thousands of Nigerian[s] out of jobs and into sorrow and pain.”
The minister said the workers’ suffering did not end there. “To add salt into their wounds, you refused to pay them their pensions and gratuities, running into billions of Naira,” he said.
According to him, Tinubu has now taken on the debt. “Twenty-two years later, after many of them have died out of frustration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now clearing the mess you left behind.
“Over a month ago, Mr President approved and released the total sum N36 billion to bring succour to these families. They have started receiving alerts and praying for Mr. President. In fact, the President was given an Award for this by the workers’ union a few weeks ago. Yet you sit down there and pontificate? It is only the younger ones who don’t know your history you can attempt to hoodwink, but we will expose you to them. You cannot disguise your inordinate ambition in a cloud of rhetorical gibberish.”
The minister also accused Atiku of picking and choosing when to own the record of the government he served in under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“When it is convenient for you, you claim some credit of the Obasanjo-Atiku government and when not convenient, you say Obasanjo was in charge and not you as Vice-President. The proper posturing of a con artist!” Keyamo said.
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