Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode,
had on Tuesday castigated the Aviation
Minister, Stella Oduah, saying that she is
unnecessarily petty regarding the affairs of
the aviation industry.
Kayode, in response to an earlier statement
by the Minister said she is the one who
should bury her head in shame for failing
to turn the aviation industry around.
Oduah had said earlier that FFK was under
some unnatural influence to have in his
article called for her resignation and
dismissed the good job recorded so far in
the industry.
The Minister’s statement was in response to
a reporter’s question during the opening
ceremony of the African Regional
Conference of Civil Aviation Navigation
Organisation, CANSO, in Abuja.
She said, “The nation has had its fair share
of challenges in the aviation sector but has
adopted an attitude of refusing to relent in
moving forward as a key strategy for
improvement in the sector.”
According to her: “Aviation which is one of
the drivers of the economy has ensured
that we achieve double digit economic
growth.”
While responding, Fani Kayode said that the
Minister’s remarks were unnecessary,
malicious and petty.
“She reportedly said that I should bow my
head in shame, suggested that I was
“speaking out of context’’ in my essay
where I called for her resignation and that I
spoke under some “influence of something
or other.”
His words: “My advice and counsel to her is
to grow up and stop being petty. She is
meant to talk like someone who befits her
office and not like a market woman.
“I do not like joining issues with women
publicly which is why I was very gentle with
her in my essay though I made my point.
But this particular woman is endangering
the lives of our people with her
incompetence and insensitivity and we
cannot just keep quiet.
“This is a woman under whose watch
almost 200 people have been killed as
Aviation Minister and instead of focusing
on how to save lives her obsession has
become smearing and abusing Femi Fani-
Kayode.
“This is a woman who only
yesterday told Nigerians that
‘accidents are inevitable’ and that they
were ‘acts of God.’ This is a woman who
thinks more about how her headscarf
looks, her jewellery and the jewellery of
others more than she does about
protecting Nigerian air travellers.
“If anyone should bury her head in shame,
it is her and not me. After just under 200 of
our fellow citizens have been killed under
her watch instead of abusing her critics and
those of us that have expressed our
concern and offered our advise she should
be seeking repentance from God and
tendering her resignation.
“She should be attempting to encourage
the Nigerian people and assuage their fears
rather than indulging in petty and cheap
sideshots and a futile press war.
“Instead of comforting the families of those
that were lost she is opening her mouth
and abusing me. What a shame. Under her
tenure we have beautiful terminals but
deadly and blood-soaked skies. Our skies
have become a death trap because she
really doesn’t care.
“My advice to her is to shut up, get serious
and focus on doing her job rather than
attempting to smear me with her filthy lies
and malicious innuendos.
“I raised some serious issues in that essay
that was clearly above her education level
and I avoided personal insults.
“That is what civilised people do. She
should learn from that and address the
issues that were raised rather than spend
her time trying to kill the messenger. When
someone says that God is the author of
fatal crashes you know that it is not the
same God that we worship as that person.
“It is the devil that causes accidents and
kills people and not God. You can say that
a fatal accident is an act of God only if the
devil is your god.
“When I speak and write I am under the
influence of one thing and one thing alone-
the Spirit of the Living God who sees
through her and who knows her for what
she is.
“She is the one that is under the influence
of one thing or the other and not me. She
is the one whose hands are filled with
blood. She is the one that must bury her
head in shame and no-one else. I will pray
for her because she needs it and I will pray
for Nigeria too. May God deliver us from
these people,” Fani-Kayode added.
Fani Kayode has been very vocal regarding
national issues and appears to be one of
the most controversial writers in Nigeria as
at today.
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