Festus Keyamo: From Senior Advocate To Senior Distraction

By Akin Samuel Kayode.

Festus Keyamo woke up this morning, 14th October 2026, and did what he has perfected in the last 3 years as Aviation Minister. Not fixing aviation. Not fixing runways. Not reducing airfares. He woke up to do propaganda.

On his X handle, he called Atiku Abubakar a hypocrite over the liquidation of Nigeria Airways in September 2004. He said President Tinubu is now clearing the mess Atiku left behind by releasing N36 billion to former Nigeria Airways workers, 22 years later.

Nigerians, let us dissect this statement, expose the lies, and nail the coffin of this distraction with facts, figures, and history. Because if we don’t, APC will use this N36 billion to lie to another generation.

PART ONE: WHAT WAS NIGERIA AIRWAYS BEFORE 1999? A HISTORY OF A FLYING COFFIN.

To understand 2004, you must understand 1979 to 1999.

Nigeria Airways was established in 1958. By the 1980s, it had 32 aircraft. It was the pride of Africa. By 1999, when Obasanjo and Atiku took over, Nigeria Airways had only ONE serviceable aircraft. One. From 32 to 1. Debts of over $60 million. $17 million debt to fuel suppliers. $20 million debt in London alone. Its aircraft were seized in London, in New York, in Nairobi.

It was banned from flying to the United States by the FAA because it failed a safety audit. It was banned from the UK. Its staff were being arrested abroad for drug trafficking because under the military, the airline was used to courier drugs. Pilots were not paid for 8 months. Engineers were on strike.

This was the airline Atiku met in 1999. A corpse. A flying coffin. A national disgrace that made Nigeria a laughing stock. Everywhere Nigerian passport was disrespected partly because our national carrier was a symbol of failure.

So the Obasanjo-Atiku government did what any serious reformer would do. They tried to privatise it. They brought the IFC of the World Bank. They tried SwissAir, they tried British Airways. No one would buy a dead company with $60 million debt and 2,000 ghost workers. The only honest option was liquidation.

Liquidation in 2004 was not wickedness. It was surgery. You cut off a gangrenous leg to save the patient. That is what Obasanjo-Atiku did to save the aviation sector for what later became Arik, Air Peace, Ibom Air, and others to emerge.

Keyamo knows this. He was a lawyer then. But today he pretends not to know.

PART TWO: THE N36 BILLION YOU CELEBRATE IS YOUR INDICTMENT, NOT YOUR ACHIEVEMENT.

Keyamo said Tinubu released N36 billion 22 years later and workers are now receiving alerts. Let us do honest math.

In 2004, when Nigeria Airways workers were laid off, their gratuity was calculated at Naira’s value of 2004. One dollar was N130. So if a worker was owed N1 million in 2004, that was $7,692.

You are paying him N1 million in 2026 when one dollar is N1,550. That N1 million is now $645. You have wiped out 91% of his money through your own devaluation and inflation. You kept his money for 22 years, used inflation to destroy it, and you come to say you cleared the mess? You mocked the dead and robbed the living.

Many of them have died. Over 800 former staff reportedly died waiting between 2004 and 2024 according to their union. Their children dropped out of school. Their wives became widows. You kept their money for 22 years and you call it achievement?

If you wanted to clear the mess honestly, you would pay them the dollar value of 2004 plus interest plus compensation for 22 years of trauma. That would be over N400 billion. But you paid N36 billion. That is less than what your government spends on presidential jets in one year.

And Festus, where did N36 billion come from? From aviation taxes you collected from suffering Nigerians. NCAA data shows you collected over N220 billion in passenger service charge and ticket sales charge between 2023 and 2026. Yet the Enugu runway is still potholed, Kano runway lights still fail, Lagos airport air conditioners still don’t work.

You took money from current travellers to pay for your propaganda about 2004.

PART THREE: THE SELECTIVE AMNESIA OF FESTUS KEYAMO.

Keyamo said: “When it is convenient for you, you claim some credit for the Obasanjo-Atiku government, and when not convenient, you say Obasanjo was in charge and not you.”

We accept the challenge. Let us list what the Obasanjo-Atiku government did between 1999-2007 where Atiku was Vice President and Chairman of the National Council on Privatization and Chairman of the Economic Council was central:

1. Paid off $12 billion Paris Club debt and freed Nigeria from debt slavery. Nigeria was spending 40% of budget servicing debt. Atiku chaired the economic team that negotiated it. That singular act saved Nigeria $40 billion.
2. Created EFCC and ICPC in 2003. For the first time, former ministers and former governors were arrested. That was reform.
3. Telecoms revolution: From 400,000 phone lines in 1999 to 30 million lines in 2007. Atiku as head of privatization supervised NITEL reform and GSM licensing. Today Nigeria has 120 million lines because of that foundation.
4. Banking consolidation: From 89 weak banks to 25 strong banks in 2005. That saved depositors’ money.
5. GDP growth: Average 7% growth for 8 years. Foreign reserves from $3 billion in 1999 to $43 billion in 2007.
6. Liquidation of Nigeria Airways: Yes, we stand by it. Because after liquidation, aviation was liberalised and private airlines emerged. If we had kept pumping money into Nigeria Airways, there would be no Air Peace today.

These are facts, not propaganda. You can go and verify.

Now what will Keyamo stand by as an Aviation Minister for 3 years? Let us list:

1. Airfares: Lagos-Abuja moved from N55,000 in 2023 to N180,000 to N250,000 in 2026. Nigerians can no longer fly.
2. Flight delays: According to NCAA September 2026 report, 48% of domestic flights delayed, 12% cancelled. Passengers sleep on floors in Abuja and Lagos.
3. Runways: No new runway built. Enugu, Kano, Port Harcourt runways are still in bad shape. Airfield lighting failure recorded 23 times in 2025.
4. Nigeria Air: The fraud called Nigeria Air that you inherited, you have not prosecuted anyone.
5. Your only achievement: Tweeting against Atiku.

PART FOUR: WHO IS THE REAL HYPOCRITE?

Festus Keyamo was once a human rights activist. He once sued the government for a fuel price hike. He once wrote that subsidy removal without alternatives is wicked. Today he defends N1,350 per litre of fuel.

He once defended Sowore, defended activists. Today he defends a government where kidnappers operate on Abuja-Kaduna road, where farmers cannot go to farm in Benue, Plateau, Zamfara.

He once said he would never serve a government that makes life expensive. Today he is spokesman for a government that SBM Intelligence says 67.4% of Nigerians want subsidy back because life is too expensive.

The hypocrite is not Atiku. The hypocrite is the man who moved from the courtroom to the cabinet and changed his tongue.

PART FIVE: THE REAL QUESTION KEYAMO REFUSES TO ANSWER.

Atiku said yesterday: Pensioners must choose between buying medicine and buying food. Young people work hard, yet transport, rent and basic needs consume what they earn. Families live with fear of kidnapping. No family should face hunger and insecurity at the same time. Go collect your PVC.

That was a message of hope and empathy. What was Keyamo’s answer? Nigeria Airways 2004.

Atiku said: Bola made life expensive, I will work to make life affordable.

Keyamo answered: You liquidated Airways.

This is what psychologists call deflection. When you cannot answer the present, you run to the past.

So I will bring him back to the present with direct questions he must answer as Aviation Minister:

1. Why did airfares triple under you?
2. Why did you approve the 100% increase in airport charges in 2025?
3. Why has not one runway been fully rehabilitated under you?
4. Why are former Nigeria Airways workers paid only after 22 years with devalued Naira?
5. When last did you fix one runway in Nigeria?

Until you answer these, you have no moral right to call Atiku a hypocrite.

CONCLUSION: WE WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED.

This is APC’s strategy for 2027. They cannot campaign on achievements because there is no achievement. So they will campaign on 2004, on 1999, on anything but 2026.

They will carry an IMF statement to attack production subsidies. They will carry Nigeria Airways to attack Atiku. They will carry anything except answering why a bag of rice is N85,000, why petrol is N1,350, why kidnappers collect ransom on transfer.

We, The Narrative Force, will not be distracted. Atiku will not be distracted.

We will keep reminding Nigerians: The question is not what happened in 2004. The question is what is happening now. And now, Nigerians are hungry, broke, and unsafe.

And if N36 billion after 22 years is what you call clearing the mess, then you have proved our point — APC is a government that takes 22 years to do what should take 22 days.

Akin Samuel Kayode,
Member, The Narrative Force.