Keyamo to Atiku: Tinubu clearing billions in unpaid Nigeria Airways pensions

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has accused former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of hypocrisy, saying President Bola Tinubu is settling unpaid pensions and gratuities owed to former Nigeria Airways workers following the airline’s liquidation in 2004.

Keyamo’s remarks followed a statement by Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who criticised Tinubu’s economic policies, blaming them for the rising cost of living and promising to reverse the trend if elected president.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Keyamo alleged that the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in which Atiku served as vice-president, liquidated the national carrier and left thousands of workers without their retirement benefits.

“To add salt into their wounds, you refused to pay them their pensions and gratuities, running into billions of Naira,” the minister said.

He added that Tinubu had approved and released an additional N36 billion more than a month ago to clear the outstanding payments and provide relief to affected families.

“Twenty-two years later, after many of them have died out of frustration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu @officialABAT is now clearing the mess you left behind,” Keyamo said.

According to the minister, former Nigeria Airways workers have started receiving payment alerts, while their union recently presented an award to Tinubu in recognition of his administration’s intervention.

Keyamo also accused Atiku of taking credit for the achievements of the Obasanjo administration when convenient while distancing himself from its decisions at other times.

“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,” he said.

“The proper posturing of a con artist!”

The minister further criticised Atiku for commenting on the Tinubu administration’s economic policies while, according to him, failing to address the plight of former Nigeria Airways workers during his time in government.

The federal government has concluded the payment of outstanding severance benefits to 2,100 former workers of Nigeria Airways Limited, more than two decades after the national carrier was liquidated in September 2004.