Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has frowned at the exclusion of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the list of those honored by having railway stations named after them.
He said the omission was “petty, malicious, spiteful and sacrilegious.”
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in a statement by the Ministry’s Director of press, Eric Ojiekwe, on Monday said that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the naming of some railway stations along the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe/Ajaokuta/Aladja/Warri corridor after some deserving Nigerian citizens.
It said those the railway stations were named after were Nigerian citizens who had contributed to the progress and development of their respective communities and the nation at large.
Among those whose names were mentioned included former President Goodluck Jonathan, All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo among others.
The name of former President Obasanjo was conspicuously missing in the list of the beneficiaries.
Responding to that, Fani-Kayode, in a tweet on his Twitter handle, @realFFK, on Tuesday decried the omission of Obasanjo, Late President Umaru Yar’adua among others from the list of beneficiaries of the honour.
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He wrote, “I believe that the exclusion of OBJ from the list of those honored by having railway stations etc. named after them was petty, malicious, spiteful and sacrilegious. We must not allow politics to becloud our thinking and judgement and we must give honor to whom it is due.
“Equally sad, is the fact that Umaru Yar’adua, Ameyo Adadevoh, Shehu Shagari,Tafawa Balewa, TB Joshua, David Oyedepo, Baba Adebanjo, John Nwodo, Emeka Ojukwu, Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala, Matthew Hassan Kukah, Baba Kessington Adebutu & others were also left out. Give honor to whom it is due!”
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