Who is Femi Fani Kayode

Femi Fani Kayode is a former Nigerian Aviation minister who is a popular critic of the APC government; he was born in Lagos, Nigeria on 16th October 1960 to Chief Remilekun Adetokunbo Fani-Kayode and to Chief (Mrs) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode.

He is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical Christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006.

He started his education at the age of eight at Brighton College, Brighton in the UK after which he went to Holmewood House School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, South-East England.

Femi Fani-Kayode entered Harrow School in Harrow on the Hill, United Kingdom, and later into Kelly College in Tavistock, UK, where he completed the rest of his public school education.

Evidently, in 1980 Femi Fani-Kayode went to the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies where he graduated with an LL.B law degree in 1983.

He entered Cambridge University (Pembroke College) where his grandfather (Selwyn College), his father (Downing College) and his older brother, Akinola (Downing College) had all previously read law. Victor Adedapo Kayode, Femi’s grandfather, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple) in 1922 and his father, Remi Fani-Kayode, was called to the British bar (Middle Temple) in 1945.

After finishing from Cambridge, Femi Fani-Kayode went to the Nigerian Law School and in 1985 was called to the Nigerian Bar. In 1993, under the tutelage of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana, Femi Fani-Kayode became a Pentecostal Christian.

Political Career/Allegation

He was a member of the Nigerian National Congress (NNC) in 1989. And was elected the national youth leader of NNC the same year. However, in 1990, he was appointed as Chief Press Secretary to Chief Tom Ikimi, the first national chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC), and in 1991 as Special Assistant to Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO).

In 1996, disturbed by the actions of Gen. Sani Abacha’s military junta, Femi Fani-Kayode left Nigeria and joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad where, together with the likes of the Oxford University-trained lawyer Chief Tunde Edu and others, he played a very active role in the fight against Abacha.

He came back to Nigeria in 2001 and met President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the beginning of 2003, Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed by the President as a member of his presidential campaign team for the 2003 presidential election. After President Obasanjo won that election Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed as the first-ever Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

However, on September 16, 2021, he defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC claiming that he was led by the holy spirit.

Meanwhile, Femi Fani-Kayode was arrested in 2008 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in July 2008 in connection with the alleged misappropriation of a 19.5 billion nairas (approx.US$300,000,000) “Aviation Intervention Fund.”

Although, the Senate Committee on Aviation initially recommended that Fani-Kayode be banned from holding public office for five years but withdrew the request when he had not violated any law.