Protest Against Fuel Subsidy Removal In 2012 Was Mere Politics – Fayemi

Kayode Fayemi, former Governor of Ekiti State has admitted that the protest that followed the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012 during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan was mere politics.

It would be be recalled that on January 1, 2012, then President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy by adjusting the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141 in a move that sparked mass protests, known as ‘Occupy Nigeria’ across major cities of the country.

Fayemi stated this in his keynote address at the 60th birthday celebration of Professor Udenta Udenta, the founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy in Abuja on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.

The ex-governor said the challenges facing the nation today cannot be solved unless the country embraces proportional representation where the spoils of elections are shared between contestants.

While noting that adversary politics bring division and enmity, he said Nigerians must look at proportional representation so that the party that is said to have one 21 per cent of the vote will have 21 per cent of the government.

He said: “Today, I read former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview in The Cable saying our liberal democracy is not working and we need to revisit it. And I agree with him, we must move from a political alternative, I think we are almost at a dead end.

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“What we need is alternative politics and my own notion of alternative politics is that you can’t have 35 per cent of the vote and take 100 per cent. It won’t work. We must look at proportional representation so that the party that is said to have 21 per cent of the vote will have 21 per cent of the government. Adversary politics bring division and enmity.

“All political parties in the country agreed and they even put in their manifesto that the subsidy must be removed. We all said the subsidy must be removed. But we in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the time in 2012, we know the truth sir but it is all politics. That is why we must ensure that everybody is a crucial stakeholder by stopping all these.

The event was attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan, former minister of education in Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili, and former minister of aviation, Osita Chidoka, among others.

(Nation)