Former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has described the exclusion of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from those honoured by having railway stations named after them as “petty and malicious”.
Mr Fani-Kayode, a vocal critic of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, stated this in a Twitter thread on Tuesday.
He also named several others who should be honoured as such.
“I believe that the exclusion of OBJ (Olusegun Obasanjo) from the list of those honoured by having railway stations etc named after them was petty, malicious, spiteful & sacrilegious,” he wrote.
“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 honour to whom it is due!”
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi had on Monday announced that President Buhari approved the naming of train stations along the Lagos-Ibadan and the Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri corridors after “deserving Nigerians”.
The Apapa station was named after a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, while the Agege station was named after the Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola.
Others who also made the cut include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (Kajola station), the late Mobolaji Johnson (Ebute Metta station), Lateef Jakande (Agbado station), Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Papalanto station), Prof Wole Soyinka (Abeokuta station), Segun Osoba (Olodo station), Obafemi Awolowo (Ibadan station) and Alex Ekwueme (Operations Control Centre) among others.
