Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, was sworn in as Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development on 21 August 2023, at a ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. President Bola Tinubu had forwarded Keyamo's name to the Senate as a ministerial nominee earlier that month, and he was confirmed and assigned the aviation portfolio in the president's second batch of appointments.
Keyamo succeeded Hadi Sirika, whose tenure had ended under scrutiny over the unveiling of the Nigeria Air project and unresolved questions about how the initiative had been funded and structured.
"Not to Disrupt, But to Review"
Speaking after assuming duty, Keyamo said he had read the aviation roadmap developed in 2016 and did not intend to dismantle work that had been done well, but would review areas that had not, and would consult with departments and agencies before proposing his own plans for the sector. He pledged to make transparency his watchword.
The new minister inherited a ministry facing several open questions: a House of Representatives committee had already labelled the Nigeria Air unveiling fraudulent and called for the project's suspension, the Airline Operators of Nigeria had active litigation against his predecessor, and international carriers continued to press Nigeria over hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue they said remained trapped by foreign exchange restrictions.
An Early Test
Industry stakeholders, including the Airline Operators of Nigeria, welcomed the appointment, with the association's leadership pointing to Keyamo's legal background and his prior public statements questioning the Nigeria Air ownership structure as reasons for cautious optimism. Within days of taking office, the minister moved to address the national carrier question directly.
