By Iyiola Olalere
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has challenged former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to explain why his former government failed to pay severance package to over 5,000 former staff of the defunct Nigerian Airways after liquidating the airline over two decades ago.
The challenge, according to the group, is because the former Vice President was the arrowhead of the privatisation programme of former President Olusegun Obasanjo under whose administration the Nigeria Airways ceased operations 23 years ago.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, the group argued that Nigerians deserved to know why former Vice President Atiku Abubakar did not factor in the payment of severance package and other entitlements of the workers who were laid off in the aftermath of the airline’s liquidation in April 2003.
The statement read: ” It beggars belief that after a decision was taken by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to liquidate the national carrier, Nigeria Airways, the government did not have a plan in place to pay the entitlements of more than five thousands workers including pilots, cabin crews and other ground staff who were instantly left jobless.
“One man who was at the centre of the decision as Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) was former Vice President Atiku Abubakar but not once in the last 23 years has he come clean on why the government he served as No. 2 failed to give a human face to the exercise.
“Abandoning the workers to their fate after liquidating the Nigeria Airways and selling off its assets worldwide could best be described as a wicked act. It is a statement of fact that many of the staff may have died in penury while waiting for their entitlements.
“We are aware that after President Obasanjo’s successor, Late Umaru Yar Adua, made some payments, it took more than fifteen years for the workers to get about 50% of their severance package, courtesy of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
“And today, more than 23 years after the airline ceased to exist, the Tinubu administration is moving to clear the remaining portion of the entitlements of 2,700 workers amounting to N18 billlion with 2,100 of them already settled in seven batches.
“We commend the Tinubu administration for putting a final lid on a painful part of the nation’s history at a time the chief protagonist of the act which plunged about 5,000 workers and their dependants into untold hardship is seeking to govern the country.
“We truly wonder how former Vice President would be feeling today knowing that he presided over an act that dehumanised thousands of Nigerians and left them without hope for years until Tinubu, the man he has severally accused of mishandling the nation’s finances, cleared the 23-year backlog of benefits.
“In other climes, this is enough to dent a political career but former Vice President Atiku has continued to posture as the only man capable of saving the masses from poverty in daily press statements issued by his media handlers.
“Furthermore, we find it laughable that in the same week that former Nigeria Airways workers confirmed payment of their benefits, Atiku callously demanded a breakdown of how the Tinubu administration had been spending savings made from fuel subsidy removal.”
The group urged Nigerians to see the plight of the former airline staff as a testament to the callousness and incapacity of the ADC pesidential candidate.
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