Femi Fani-Kayode Biography: Early Life, Career, Controversy, Family & Net Worth
Femi Fani-Kayode (b. October 16, 1960) is a Nigerian politician, author, and lawyer who served as Olusegun Obasanjo‘s Special Assistant on Public Affairs from July 2003 to June 2006. He served as the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Minister of Culture and Tourism from June 22 to November 7, 2006, and as Minister of Aviation from November 7 to May 29, 2007.
Femi Fani-Kayode Biography
David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode was born on October 16, 1960, in Lagos, Lagos State, to Remi Fani-Kayode and Adia Fani-Kayode (née Adunni) of Ile-Ife, Osun State. His great-grandfather, the Rev. Emmanuel Adedapo Kayode, was one of the first Nigerians to study in England, earning an MA from the University of Durham and later becoming an Anglican priest.
His grandpa, Victor Adedapo Kayode, attended Cambridge University and later became a lawyer and judge. Victor Fani-Kayode, his father, was a renowned lawyer and political figure in Nigeria during the 1950s and 1960s while also attending Cambridge.
From 1960 to 1963, he led the opposition National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in the Western House of Assembly; from 1963 to 1966, he was Hon. Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Deputy Premier of Nigeria’s Western Region; and in 1958, he successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in the Nigerian Parliament.
Femi Fani-Kayode began his schooling at Brighton College in Brighton, United Kingdom, and later attended Holmewood House School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, South-East England. He enrolled at Harrow School in Harrow on the Hill, United Kingdom, and later transferred to Kelly College in Tavistock, UK, where he finished the remainder of his public school education.
Fani-Kayode enrolled in the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in 1980 and earned an LL.B. law degree in 1983. In 1984, he enrolled in Cambridge University’s Pembroke College to pursue his LLM, where his grandpa (Selwyn College), father (Downing College), and older brother, Akinola (Downing College), had all previously studied law.
Femi’s grandfather, Victor Adedapo Kayode, was called to the British bar (at Middle Temple) in 1922, while his father, Remi Fani-Kayode, was called in 1945.
Femi Fani-Kayode graduated from Cambridge and attended the Nigerian Law School before being admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1985. In 1993, under the tutelage of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana, Femi Fani-Kayode became a Pentecostal Christian. He decided to go back to school to study theology at the Christian Action Faith Bible Seminary in Accra, Ghana, gaining a diploma in theology in 1995.
Political career
Femi Fani-Kayode was a member of the Nigerian National Congress (NNC) in 1989. That same year, he was elected as the National Youth Leader of the NNC. In 1990, he was named Chief Press Secretary to Chief Tom Ikimi, the first national chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC), and in 1991, Special Assistant to Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, former chief of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO).
Femi Fani-Kayode left Nigeria in 1996, disturbed by the actions of Gen. Sani Abacha’s military junta, and joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad, where he, along with Oxford University-trained lawyer Chief Tunde Edu and others, played an active role in the pro-democracy campaign against Abacha’s military regime. He returned to Nigeria in 2001 and met President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The President appointed Femi Fani-Kayode to his presidential campaign team for the 2003 presidential election in early 2003. Following President Obasanjo’s election victory, Femi Fani-Kayode was named as Nigeria’s first Special Assistant on Public Affairs. In 2006, he was designated Honorary Minister of Culture and Tourism.
That same year, following a slight cabinet upheaval, he was sent to the Aviation Ministry as Minister of Aviation. Since the conclusion of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government on May 29, 2007, Femi Fani-Kayode has returned to the private sector and his legal practice.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigated and detained Femi Fani-Kayode in July 2008 for alleged theft of a 19.5 billion naira (about $300,000,000) “Aviation Intervention Fund”. The investigation revealed no evidence against him. [5] [6] In early 2008, the Senate Committee on Aviation initially suggested that Fani-Kayode be barred from holding public office for five years but then dropped the recommendation.
At the start of 2010, there was speculation that a power struggle had begun in Nigeria, with President Obasanjo and his supporters pressuring Yar’Adua to stand down and pass over control to his vice-president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
Yar’Adua’s supporters resisted this suggestion, and in response, they devised another strategy to silence and intimidate President Obasanjo and his key supporters, including El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode, Ribadu, Lawal Batagarawa, Nnenadi Usman, and Andy Uba, by accusing them of plotting a coup. This was the same tactic used by General Sani Abacha, who detained Obasanjo on similar allegations while in office.
General Obasanjo was released and pardoned a few years later, after Abacha died and General Abdulsalami Abubakar assumed power. In November 2010, Fani-Kayode stated that Yar’Adua planned to imprison and destroy his predecessor in office and the man who single-handedly brought him to power, President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as his loyalists, including El-Rufai, Ribadu, and himself.
He further claimed that Baba Gana Kingibe, the Secretary to the Federal Government under the Yar’Adua administration, was the primary enforcer of the scheme, and that Yar’Adua administration officials James Ibori, Tanimu Yakubu, Abba Ruma, and Michael Aondoakaa were all engaged.
On August 25, 2020, while attending a brief press conference on his trip of southern Nigeria, he attacked and denigrated a journalist from the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust. The journalist had questioned him about who was financially responsible for his expensive jet tickets for the trips. The following day, FFK apologised to the journalist.
In December 2008, the EFCC arrested Fani-Kayode and charged him with 47 counts of money laundering. Fani-Kayode said that he was innocent and that the funds came from his own private enterprises and legitimate sources, not from the government.
He claimed that the Yar’Adua government’s and the EFCC’s investigations were politically motivated and that he was being punished in the same way as other Obasanjo administration colleagues, such as Nasir El-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu, because of their ties to President Obasanjo. On October 22, EFCC operatives were detained on a 17-count charge of unlawful retention, unlawful usage, and unlawful payment of money totalling around N4.9 billion made against them by the anti-graft commission.
On July 1, 2015, a Federal High Court in Lagos discharged and acquitted Fani-Kayode of a two-count charge of money laundering brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The court determined that the EFCC was unable to prove the charges against Fani-Kayode beyond a reasonable doubt and thus acquitted him.
Kayode had been fighting the issue since 2008, when he was charged by the EFCC with laundering around N100 million while serving as Minister of Culture and Tourism and later as Aviation Minister. The allegedly laundered cash was lowered to N2.1 million on November 17, 2014, when Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia dropped 38 of the EFCC’s 40 allegations against Fani-Kayode due to a lack of evidence.
Furthermore, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has been prosecuted, charged, and tried in four significant cases and appeals by the EFCC over the last 18 years. He won every one of them, the last on February 4, 2025.
Femi Fani-Kayode Wife
Femi Fani-Kayode has gotten married four times. His first marriage was to Saratu “Baby” Atta in 1987, and they divorced in 1990. They had one child named Oluwafolake. The second marriage was to Yemisi Olasunbo Adeniji in 1991, but they divorced in 1995.
They have three daughters, named Oluwatemitope, Oluwatobiloba, and Oluwatuminu. The third marriage was with Regina-Hanson Amonoo. They married in 1997 and have one daughter named Oluwaremilekun. Femi Fani-Kayode and Precious Chikwendu, a beauty queen and Miss United Nations (global) beauty pageant winner in 2014, married in accordance with native law and customs.
It was his fourth marriage. On February 1, 2016, Fani-Kayode and his wife welcomed their first son. He was christened Joshua Oluwafemi. Emmanuel Lotanna Aragorn Fani-Kayode. He is Fani-Kayode’s firstborn son. On May 25, 2018, Precious Chikwendu gave birth to a set of triplets for her husband, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
They were named Ragnar Alexander Olusegun Okunade Ikena Fani-Kayode, Aiden Daniel Olumide Jidena Benaniah Fani-Kayode, and Liam Michael Oluwanifemi Tobena Jehu Fani-Kayode. In 2020, Femi Fani-Kayode and Precious Chikwendu separated due to irreconcilable issues. Femi Fani-Kayode and his wife, Regina Hanson-Amono, were married in 1997 and are still married today.
In July 2025, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode married his second wife, Adaugo. She is a 26-year-old interior designer and devout Pentecostal Christian from Abia state, Nigeria.
Femi Fani-Kayode net worth
Femi Fani-Kayode, a prominent Nigerian politician and lawyer, with an estimated net worth of $5 million. Femi Fani-Kayode has gotten married four times. Femi Fani-Kayode’s first wife was Saratu “Baby” Atta in 1987, and they divorced in 1990, despite having one daughter, Oluwafolake.
Social Media
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