David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode (; born 16 October 1960) is a Nigerian aristocrat, politician, writer, lawyer, diplomat and poet.
He has served as the Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Minister of Culture and Tourism, and the Minister of Aviation, and as an ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Femi Fani-Kayode was honored with the traditional title of Otunba of Joga Orile, Jogaland (meaning "the right hand man to the King") by the Abepa of Orile, Oba (Dr.) Adeyemi Olanrewaju Adekeye of Joga Orile in Ogun State, South Western Nigeria in 2017. He was honored with the traditional title of Sadaukin Shinkafi (meaning "the warrior of the Shinkafi Emirate") by Emir Muhammed Makwashe, the Emir of Shinkafi in Zamfara State, North Western Nigeria in 2020. He was honored with the traditional title of Aare Ajagunla of Otun Ekiti, Mobaland (meaning the "supreme commander of the great warriors of Mobaland") by the Oore of Otun Ekiti, Paramount Ruler of Mobaland, His Royal Majesty, Oba Dr Adekunle Adeagbo in Ekiti State, South Western Nigeria in 2019. He was honored with the traditional title of Wakilin Doka Potiskum (meaning "the leader and commander of the law enforcement officers of the Potiskum Emirate") by His Royal Majesty Emir Umaru Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya, the Emir of Potiskum in Yobe State, North Eastern Nigeria in 2022.
Early life and education
Femi Fani-Kayode was born on 16 October 1960 in Lagos, to Remi Fani-Kayode and (Mrs.) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode (née Sa’id). He is from Ile-Ife, Osun State. His great-grandfather, Rev. Emmanuel Adelabi Kayode, was one of the earliest Nigerians to be educated in England, receiving an MA (Hons) in Theology from Durham University in 1893. He also studied Theology at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone.
He was one of those that first introduced christianity to Ile-Ife where he became the first Anglican priest and the first person to build and pastor a church. His grandfather, Justice Victor Adedapo Kayode, studied law at University of Cambridge and became a lawyer and the third Nigerian to be appointed as a magistrate and a judge.
His father Remi Fani-Kayode, who was also at University of Cambridge, was a prominent lawyer and political figure in Nigeria in the 1940s 1950s and 1960s. He was appointed youth leader of the Action Group in 1948. And in 1952, he was elected into the Nigerian Parliament on the Action Group platform to represent Ile-Ife.
In 1959, he left the Action Group and was elected leader of the opposition on the platform of National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in the Western House of Assembly where he presided from 1960 to 1963. In 1963, on the platform of the NNDP he was elected Deputy Premier of the Western Region and was appointed as Regional Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs until 1966. In 1958, he had the distinct honour of successfully moving the motion for Nigeria’s Independence in the Parliament
Femi Fani-Kayode started his education at Brighton College, Brighton in the UK, after which he went to Holmewood House School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, South-East England. He attended Harrow School in Harrow on the Hill, United Kingdom, and later went to Kelly College in Tavistock, where he completed the rest of his private school education. In 1980, Fani-Kayode went to the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies where he graduated with an LLB in 1983.
For his LLM, in 1984, he attended 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. Justice Victor Adedapo Kayode, Femi Fani-Kayode’s grandfather, had been called to the British bar (at Middle Temple) in 1922 and his father, Remi Fani-Kayode, was called to the British bar (also at Middle Temple) in 1945. After finishing from Cambridge University, Femi Fani-Kayode attended 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 and attended The Christian Action Faith Bible Seminary in Accra, Ghana, where he graduated with a diploma in theology in 1995.
Political career
Femi Fani-Kayode was a member of the Nigerian National Congress (NNC) in 1989. He was elected the national youth leader of NNC that same year. In 1990, he was appointed as Chief Press Secretary to 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 Tunde Edu and others, he played a very active role in the pro-democracy campaign against the military regime of 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.
In 2006, he was appointed as the Honorable Minister of Culture and Tourism. That same year, after a minor cabinet reshuffle, he was re-deployed to the Aviation Ministry as the Minister of Aviation. Since the end of the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration on 29 May 2007, Femi Fani-Kayode has gone back to the private sector and to his legal practice.
In 2025, President Tinubu appointed Femi Fani-Kayode as an ambassador to Germany.
Challenges and allegations Femi Fani-Kayode was investigated and arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in July 2008, in connection with alleged misappropriation of a 19.5 billion naira (approx. $300,000,000) "Aviation Intervention Fund." The investigation found no evidence against him. The Senate Committee on Aviation in early 2008, initially recommended that Fani-Kayode be banned from holding public office for five years but later withdrew it.
At the beginning of 2010, there was speculation that a power struggle had begun in Nigeria with President Obasanjo and his loyalists pushing for Yar'Adua to step down and hand over power to his vice-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Yar'Adua's loyalists resisted this suggestion and part of their response to that challenge was to implement another strategy to try to silence and intimidate President Obasanjo and his key loyalists, including El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode, Ribadu, Lawal Batagarawa, Nnenadi Usman and Andy Uba, by accusing them of plotting a coup.
This was the same method that was adopted by General Sani Abacha who had jailed Obasanjo on similar charges when he was in power. General Obasanjo was released and pardoned a number of years later after Abacha died and after General Abdulsalami Abubakar took power.
In November 2010, Femi Fani-Kayode said that Yar'Adua's sought to jail and destroy his predecessor in office and the man that single-handedly brought him to power, President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as his loyalists, including El-Rufai, Ribadu, and Fani-Kayode himself. He also alleged that Baba Gana Kingibe, the Secretary to the Federal Government during the Yar'Adua administration, was the principal enforcer of that plan and that Yar'Adua administration officials James Ibori, Tanimu Yakubu, Abba Ruma and Michael Aondoakaa were also involved.
On 25 August 2020, while attending a brief press conference during his tour of southern Nigeria, he had an altercation with a journalist from Trust Newspaper who he accused of being rude to him. He verbally assaulted the journalist but apologised for the incident at a later date
Arrested by EFCC and acquitted by the courts
Femi Fani-Kayode was arrested in December 2008 by the EFCC and charged with 47 counts of money laundering. Fani-Kayode stated that he was innocent and that the monies were funds received from his own private businesses and legitimate sources and had nothing to do with government funds.
He said that the investigations of the Yar'Adua government and the EFCC were politically motivated, and he was being persecuted in the same way as other colleagues from the Obasanjo government, such as Nasir El-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu, for their ties to President Obasanjo. On 22 October, EFCC operatives of arrested on a 17-count charge of unlawful retention, unlawful use and unlawful payment of money in the tune of about N4.9 billion, a charge brought against them by the anti-graft commission.
Femi Fani-Kayode was discharged and acquitted on 1 July 2015, by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on the two-count of money laundering preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The court held that the EFCC was unable to prove the charges against Fani-Kayode beyond reasonable doubt and consequently acquitted him. The other 15 counts had been thrown out and dismissed by the courts at an earlier date.
In his victory press statement, Fani-Kayode changed his name from Oluwafemi Fani-Kayode to Olufemi Olu-Kayode (meaning "the Lord brings joy"). According to him, this was done as a mark of gratitude to God following his acquittal of all the remaining money laundering charges that were brought against him by the EFCC. Fani-Kayode had fought the case since 1 July 2008 and he was finally cleared of all the remaining charges that had not been dismissed earlier on 1 July 2015. This was 7 years to the day after his ordeal first started.
Femi Fani-Kayode had fought the case since 2008 was accused by the EFCC to have laundered about N100m while he was Minister of Culture and Tourism and subsequently Aviation Minister. The allegedly laundered sum was however reduced to N2.1m on 17 November 2014 after Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia, dismissed 38 out of the 40 counts levelled against Fani-Kayode by the EFCC for want of proof.
In 2008 he was accused of misappropriating 19.5 billion naira of the Aviation Intervention Fund and of money laundering whilst he was Minister of Aviation and prosecuted by the EFCC from 1 July 2008 to 1 July 2015 at the Federal High Court in Lagos before Hon. Justice Ahmad, Hon. Justice Binta Nyarku and Hon. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia respectively. On 1 July 2016, he was discharged and acquitted of all charges by Hon. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court.
In 2016 he was accused of misappropriating 8 billion naira of public funds which he allegedly used for President Goodluck Jonathan's presidential campaign and prosecuted by EFCC from 2016 to 2023 at the Federal High Court in Lagos before Hon. Justice M.S. Hassan, Hon. Justice Aikawa and Hon. Justice Oziagor respectively. 7 years later, all the charges that were brought against him before Justice Osiagor were quashed by the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos in April 2023.
In 2016 he was accused of illegally receiving 26 million naira from the office of the National Security Advisor to President Goodluck Jonathan, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and was prosecuted by EFCC from 2016 to 2025 at the Federal High Court Abuja before Hon. Justice Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. On 15 January 2025, he was discharged and acquitted on all counts by Hon. Justice Tsoho.
In 2021 he was accused of forging and procuring fake medical certificates which he allegedly presented before the courts in order to secure an adjournment and was prosecuted by EFCC from 2021 to 2025 at the Lagos State High Court Ikeja before Hon. Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe. On 4 February 2025, he was discharged and acquitted on all counts by Hon. Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe.