Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi the current Minister of Aviation posted the story below on her facebook page by Yakubu Dati.
Fani Kayode has called for her resignation following the recent Associated Airline crash in Lagos.
With the just recent IRS airline with about 99 passengers emergency landing in Kaduna Airport one can't but be scared for the aviation industry, this is not time to banter, exchange words or stories but time to put an end to all the unnecessary death and crashes in the industry.
Is time we say NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! to short cuts and i don't care attitude.
oh well read and enjoy Yakubu Dati's piece.
Self- glorification is not new to Nigerians as a relevance-seeking
strategy by politicians who have been left stranded at the bus stop in
the new scheme of things. If that strategy appears to be failing, some
adept politicians advise that you quickly combine it with self-righteous
pontifications which you shoot at those in government. These salvos
would, usually make you smell like roses ,such that those who dumped you
at the bus stop, would forever regret the day they did not take you
along with the convoy.
Sadly,for one young and well
educated politician with such great potential known as Chief Femi
Fani-Kayode this has been the case, since he left government five years
ago. This new-found public- spirited commentator who jumps on any issue
under the sun in our troubled polity ,usually expresses views that
range from the ridiculous, to the frivolous, to the unserious, to the
Kindergarten ,to the downright sleazy. Even Fani-Kayode himself admits
that he thrives in controversy.
Last week’s most recent
tragic death of several Nigerians in an air crash in Ikeja Lagos
provided Fani-Kayode with his latest ammunition. And firing on all
cylinders, he has gleefully launched a barrage of verbal attacks at the
President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan ,at ranking executives of his former
party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP and at the current Aviation
Minister, Princess Stella Oduah,among others.
As is
typical of Fani-Kayode, his attacks on his political
friends-turned-opponents in the PDP is both virulent but again,
self-serving. Lets take a look.Fani-Kayode says: “Before the first crash
took place last year and between the two major crashes there were
numerous other smaller ones involving light aircraft, private jets,
military planes and helicopters that were not publicised. All these
unfortunate events occurred under the tenure of Princess Stella Oduah,
who is the current Minister of Aviation. Under her watch, close to 200
souls have been killed in air crashes in the last two years alone. “This
does not surprise me given the nature of the individual that is
involved,” he says.
Fani-Kayode is very funny. One,Oduah
is not responsible for military aircraft.Two, is he suggesting that
Princess Oduah likes Nigerians to be killed and that the death of this
large number of Nigerians has something to do with “the nature of the
individual that is involved,”in this case, Oduah?What is in “the nature”
of the current Aviation minister that is attracting air crashes but did
not attract air crashes during Fani-Kayode’s tenure but also attracted
numerous fatal crashes during Fani-Kayode’s predecessor, Professor
Babalola Borisade’s tenure and his (Borisade’s predecessor),Dr Kema
Chikwe’s tenure as Aviation minister? Fani-Kayode who is known to have
attended a seminary, must have a special nature which prevents air
crashes!Fani-Kayode then takes his comments further into the realm of
the ridiculous when he says:” As a matter of fact, I am convinced that
even if 1,000 people were killed in air crashes in the space of just six
months under President Goodluck Jonathan, he would still not re-deploy
or sack Stella Oduah because our President just ”doesn’t give a damn”.
Now, perhaps, we can safely assume that Fani-Kayode wants more Nigerians
to die in order to prove that his comments are right.
Rather,
we should ask Fani-Kayode this question: ”Why should any Nigerian die
from an air crash?” Really, to any right thinking person, why would the
President or the Aviation minister want anybody to die from an air plane
crash? Such opportunistic criticism by Fani-Kayode is insensitive, and
this shows him to be guilty of the same ill he accuses others of been
guilty of.Is the lives of Nigerians who are killed in air crashes now to
be counted as if one was counting chicken, in order to know who had the
highest casualties?How can Fani-Kayode be this insensitive and
callous?Hear Fani-Kayode again ,this time as he blows his own trumpet:”
there were no air crashes under my watch and not one drop of blood was
spilt from the air whilst I was Minister of Aviation, whether it be
passenger plane, private jet, helicopter or light aircraft. I thank God
for that, because if it had happened I would not have been able to sleep
at night.” “I am the only Minister of Aviation in Nigeria between 2002
to date that can lay claim to that. I put it down to hard work, prayer
and the grace of God and nothing else. Unlike some others, I was
literally paranoid when it came to air safety and security because it
was obvious to me that there was more to the whole thing than meets the
eye.” He however also tells us that he was literally “paranoid” about
air safety and security. What Fani-Kayode did not tell us however, is
how his subsuming “paranoia” helped to prevent air crashes! Very soon,
we may begin to teach paranoia in Aviation and management schools as a
remedy for air crashes! His statement is contradictory giving us a
glimpse into what appears to be a confused state of mind. On one hand he
says “hard work” prevented air crashes, then, on the other hand ,he
says “there is more to the whole thing than meets the eye.” Now,he is
waxing spiritual.We also know that Fani-Kayode’s cant has not been
restricted to the Aviation industry.
During the recent
furore over the deportation of some Igbo indigenes from Lagos
State,Fani-Kayode who again jumped on the argument train, regaled the
Nigerian public with his scandalous tales of some prominent Igbo
ladies,howbeit married women who he had had intimate relationships
with.Is this ex-minister and presidential aide so bereft of gentlemanly
honour? Is Fani-Kayode so blinded by his quest for political relevance
and his bizzare love for controversy that he would through decorum to
the winds?Perhaps, we may introduce Fani-Kayode to a new line of
business which should turn out to be very lucrative—an FFK secret potion
for the prevention of air crashes.It also has ingredients that make it a
potent aphrodisiac for FFK’s ladies.Sadly,it would seem that Chief
Fani-Kayode has failed to justify the huge investment made by his well
respected father to educate him in some of the best schools in England
and elsewhere.When a lawyer with such rich pedigree can not present a
coherence ,reasonable argument on a simple but serious matter that is
already in the public arena, then you wonder what went wrong
somewhere.FFK is simply self delusional.
If Fani-Kayode
was not playing to the public gallery, Princess Oduah has always, quite
rightly held him in high esteem, extending to him the traditional
courtesy expected to be accorded a former Aviation minister .On that
basis ,one would expect that if the former minister has any advice and
knowledge which he believes would help prevent air crashes in the
country he would have forwarded these to the current Aviation minister.
Rather, Fani-Kayode has engaged himself in unconscionable
cant,double-speak and downright self-glorification which is totally
unbecoming of a former minister of Aviation or any high office holder
for that matter.
Fani only spent seven months Nov 2006 to May,2007 as aviation minister yet he had become an expert in aviation.”
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