THISDAY, The Sunday Newspaper, July 19, 2009, Page 43
July 3rd, Femi fani-kayode, the former Minister for Aviation was on a flying visit to Ile-Ife, Osun State to pay homage to Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade.
The respected Oba gave Femi a royal blessing to succeed Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola in 2011. This might not be unconnected with the respect he wield s among fellow gubernatorial aspirants in Osun State. Fani-Kayode is one of the very few past leaders that can beat their chests and say they gave it their best shot while in power. Quite a number of people are presently extolling his virtues to the heavens without any recourse to sophistry or superfluous embellishment. If there is something that cannot be taken away from Chief Fani-Kayode it is his affinity with the grassroots and his acclaimed generosity. The PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Osun State has a temperament that is both refracted and subdued, depending on what issue he is discussing.
Beneath his polished accent however, lies a smoldering fire potent enough to consume the prevailing gerontocracy, and lethal enough to retire itinerant political jobbers traversing the political landscape. Youthful, but focused on his political future, Femi believes that the future of Nigeria is in her youth.
And he surrounds himself with some of the brightest minds of this generation. He never shies away from saying it as it is not minding whose ox is gored. He has done so many things to convince all that he has the can-do magic wand. After all, the spate of air crashes witnessed by Nigeria a few years ago abated during Femi’s tenure. And he brought some sanity into the aviation industry in the country before he finished his tenure.