Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode & incumbent, Stella Oduah in war of words

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, yesterday, took up the incumbent, Stella Oduah, describing her as being unnecessarily petty in the handling of issues relating to the industry.

Fani-Kayode had criticised the Peoples Democratic Party for expressing confidence in Oduah despite the air crashes that had happened during her tenure as minister.

“How many more people have to be killed in air crashes before our President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) realises that he needs a new Minister of Aviation?” Fani-Kayode had asked.

But Oduah said in Abuja that Fani-Kayode was misleading innocent Nigerians and needed sympathy.

She spoke at an aviation safety event organised by the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation and hosted by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

Oduah dismissed Mr. Fani-Kayode over his ignorance, adding that his comments on the aviation sector conveyed the impression that he was under an unnatural influence.

Oduah said, “I have huge sympathy for them, the ignorant people in particular. Because when you speak out of context, when you speak under the influence of whatever it is you are under, you speak incorrectly and you mislead innocent Nigerians and that is what he has done. And he really should hide his head in shame.”

However, Fani- Kayode said that the remarks by the minister against him were uncalled for, 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. 

When will this public show of shame come to an end?! - always orchestrated by FFK (though controversially insightful).

I think Uncle FFK needs a talk show to air his diverse opinion :)