Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has disclosed that a proposal to pay former Nigeria Airways workers their outstanding pensions was rejected by the Federal Executive Council in 2006, despite his support for settling the obligations.

Fani-Kayode said he presented the memo while serving as aviation minister but lost the argument to cabinet members who opposed payments to former airline officials over their alleged roles in the company’s collapse.

In a Thursday post on X, he revisited the controversy while commending Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister Festus Keyamo for the recent settlement of the remaining entitlements under President Bola Tinubu. Punch reported that Tinubu approved and released N36 billion for the payments.

The former minister also defended ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo against criticism over the airline’s liquidation in 2004, arguing that its deterioration predated the civilian administration that took office in 1999. He said the carrier had 32 operational aircraft when Obasanjo left military rule in 1979, but had been reduced to one unserviceable plane two decades later.

Fani-Kayode attributed the airline’s decline to years of corruption, poor management and financial difficulties, adding that attempts to revive it had failed. He maintained that liquidation was unavoidable given the condition of the company at the time.

He further recalled that the administrations of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and former President Muhammadu Buhari paid portions of the workers’ outstanding benefits. While acknowledging the suffering of former employees who waited years for their entitlements, he said the decision to liquidate the airline had been a collective responsibility of the Obasanjo administration.