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!

“He met it there after he was sworn in and what he found broke his heart,” Fani-Kayode wrote.

He recalled that when Obasanjo left office as military Head of State in 1979, Nigeria Airways had 32 functional aircraft, experienced pilots and crew members, a first-class management team and an accountable board of directors.

He described the airline at the time as “the pride of the nation”.

However, Fani-Kayode said the situation had deteriorated considerably by 1999, when Obasanjo returned as a civilian president.

“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,” he said.

According to him, successive management teams and boards contributed to the airline’s decline through corruption and mismanagement between 1979 and 1999.

He said the company’s liquidation followed chronic insolvency, operational collapse and unsuccessful attempts to revive its operations, including privatisation advice from the International Finance Corporation, which later withdrew.

Fani-Kayode maintained that the Obasanjo administration was justified in refusing to continue providing public funds to the struggling airline.

“This is why Obasanjo liquidated it in 2004 and I believe that he had no choice,” he said.

“There was nothing left to save even though it was a painful decision given the fact that he was one of those that had done so much for that company when he was Military Head of State.”

The former minister said the payment of outstanding pensions became a major issue following the liquidation.

He recalled that a committee chaired by the then Head of Service of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, recommended that funds be released to pay the pensioners.

Fani-Kayode said he subsequently presented a memo to the Federal Executive Council in 2006, advocating the payment of the outstanding entitlements.

However, he said the proposal was rejected because some cabinet members believed former management teams and board members were responsible for the airline’s destruction and did not deserve pensions.

“I did not share that view but sadly I and those that supported me were in a minority and we lost the debate,” he said.

He added that the matter was revisited under the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, which paid most of the pensioners, while the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari also made payments.

Fani-Kayode commended Keyamo for ensuring that the remaining pension obligations were settled under the Tinubu administration.

“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,” he wrote.

“The pensioners suffered immensely over the years. I have always maintained that paying them was the right thing to do.”

He also referred to Atiku’s position during the Federal Executive Council deliberations on the pension payments but declined to disclose details of the former vice-president’s stance.

“As for His Excellency Waziri @atiku I know what side of the divide he was during that debate in council but I will not share that publicly because whatever decision was finally taken was a collective one,” he said.

Fani-Kayode added that members of the administration collectively bore responsibility for the decision and its consequences.

He concluded by commending Keyamo for completing the payment of the outstanding entitlements owed to former Nigeria Airways workers.

Source: punchng.com

FOLLOW US ON:

FACEBOOK

WHATSAPP CHANNEL

TWITTER

PINTEREST

TIKTOK

YOUTUBE

LINKEDIN

INSTAGRAM

Nigeria is seeking $78.5bn in private capital to finance 65 projects across critical sectors of the economy, as the Federal Government steps up efforts to attract investors, expand productive capacity and create jobs.

The investment opportunities were presented by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, alongside Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, at the ongoing IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok.

The projects cover oil and gas, electricity, manufacturing, mining, transportation, agriculture, technology, healthcare and urban development, according to details published on the Federal Ministry of Finance’s Projects Nigeria investment portal.

The government estimates that the proposed investments could generate 366,763 jobs, positioning the initiative as part of its efforts to stimulate economic growth through private-sector financing.

Oyedele said the government had established a dedicated Nigeria Deal Room to provide prospective investors with project information, financing requirements and direct access to relevant government authorities.

The energy sector accounts for the largest share of the investment pipeline, with 25 projects requiring funding, while industry, manufacturing and mining account for another 17.

Transport and maritime infrastructure have eight projects, while agriculture and agro-processing account for six. Technology, healthcare and urban services make up the remaining nine projects.

Among the proposed investments is Project Reliaxx, a crude oil evacuation and midstream infrastructure platform requiring $1.7bn.

The project is expected to address infrastructure needs in the oil industry, where evacuation constraints can affect production and revenue generation.

The proposed Lagos Greenline Railway requires $1.29bn, while the Multipurpose Industrial Platforms Limited ammonia and phosphate fertiliser project has an estimated funding requirement of $2.69bn.

Other opportunities include the $1.25bn Premium Steel and Mines integrated steel upgrade, the $355.6m PELIA Flare-Gas AI Data Centre and a $105m agro-processing and cold-chain export hub in Giri, Abuja.

The proposed New Port City development also features in the portfolio, with an estimated capital requirement of $1.6bn.

Oyedele said the government planned further reforms to address obstacles to investment, including electricity pricing, transmission constraints, weak agricultural productivity and regulatory inefficiencies.

He also identified lower inflation, reduced borrowing costs and better coordination between fiscal and monetary policies as important conditions for sustained economic growth.

The minister highlighted the Economic Development Incentive, which provides tax credits to eligible businesses under Nigeria’s reformed tax framework, as part of the measures intended to encourage investment in productive sectors.

Cardoso, on his part, said reducing inflation remained essential to protecting household purchasing power, particularly among low-income Nigerians.

He also pointed to improvements in Nigeria’s capital market and banking system, noting that banks raised approximately N4.6tn during the recapitalisation exercise, with about 72 per cent of the funds coming from the domestic capital market.

The CBN governor said Nigeria was targeting economic growth of 7 per cent by 2027/2028, alongside higher oil production and increased infrastructure investment.

He said the country planned to raise crude oil production to three million barrels per day and increase its infrastructure stock to 75 per cent of gross domestic product.

Cardoso added that stronger external reserves had improved the country’s capacity to withstand external economic shocks.

“The country plans to raise oil production to three million barrels per day and increase its infrastructure stock to 75 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.

The World Bank Group had earlier said it was helping mobilise up to $5.79bn in private financing for Nigeria in fiscal year 2026, with programmes expected to support about 850,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Source: punchng.com

FOLLOW US ON:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PINTEREST

TIKTOK

YOUTUBE

LINKEDIN

INSTAGRAM

The Federal Government has approved plans to build a new Eastern-Western electricity grid as part of efforts to address Nigeria’s recurring power grid collapses.

The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this at the recent HBSAN energy conference in Lagos, where he outlined plans to address longstanding weaknesses in the country’s electricity transmission infrastructure.

Tegbe said the government is preparing to begin the procurement process for the projects, adding that Nigerians would begin to see their benefits in two to three years.

He revealed that the government has started a technical audit across the entire country to understand the issues with the power sector and to know what should be prioritised.

“We have clustered Nigeria into three energy zones. The first one is the one that demands 50 per cent. If you fix Lagos and you fix the Abuja corridors, you’ve solved more than half of the problem of Nigeria. Because you can’t do that alone based on operational efficiency, you also have to build out your grid.

The President has approved that we commence the process of building out the grid: East and Western grid. We’re going through the procurement process, but it’s something you’ll see the benefits in two to three years,” the Minister said.

The minister said the technical audit of electricity infrastructure is to identify faults and determine which facilities require urgent repairs or replacement.

He said the exercise was intended to ensure that interventions addressed the actual causes of problems rather than directing funds towards the wrong equipment.

“We have started a technical audit across the entire country to say where do we have issues, and what issues specifically do we have. I don’t want to fix transformer issues where I have conductor and relay problems. I don’t want to fix insulators where the challenges I actually have are towers. So, we will finish that technical audit in the next couple of weeks. When we finish it, we then target our prioritised areas,” he said.

Tegbe attributed some of the challenges facing the transmission network to the age of its infrastructure, saying certain facilities dated back several decades.

He maintained that some transmission towers and lines were inherited from an era when the Electricity Company of Nigeria operated before the National Electric Power Authority.

“This government has inherited a problem of 50 years. Before I became the Minister of Power, honestly, I used to think that everybody in the power sector just didn’t know their left from right. But the reality is, some of the towers have gone down with some of the transmission lines there.

“When I went to the site, I saw some of them carrying the logo of ECN. Many people in this room might not know what ECN is. ECN predated NEPA. So, some of these things were built 50 years ago. That is the reality,” he stated.

Source: punchng.com

FOLLOW US ON:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PINTEREST

TIKTOK

YOUTUBE

LINKEDIN

INSTAGRAM