The reasons for appointing Festus Keyamo as his minister of aviation and aerospace development have been made public by presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale.
Speaking on behalf of the President, Mr. Ngelale, President Bola Tinubu‘s spokesperson, revealed on Tuesday morning that the senior lawyer was chosen to supervise the ministry due to the several legal frameworks that required attention there.
Even though the minister has never operated a plane or served as a captain, Ngelale claimed that anyone familiar with the fundamentals of the sector would recognise that laws and regulations are essential to the smooth operation of aviation and aerospace development.
Keyamo is Tinubu’s team’s top legal mind to supervise the policy and regulation review in the aviation industry, according to the president’s spokeswoman.
“We talk about aviation safety, flight safety, civil aviation safety. All of this has to do with how strong your legal foundations are; that there are effective regulations crafted to oversight that sector,” Mr Ngelale said.
His comment comes as Nigerians continue to criticize the decision of President Tinubu following his decision to appoint Mr Keyamo to head the aviation sector. While many had continued to commend the president for appointing technocrats into his administration, they also faulted the president for moving to appoint a lawyer to head a critical sector of the country’s economy.
Keyamo and forty-four other people were sworn in as members of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet on Monday, August 21. Under the immediately previous President Muhammadu Buhari, Keyamo held the position of minister of state for labour and productivity.
