Fuel subsidy: Fayemi Claims 2012 Fuel Subsidy Protests Were Politically Driven in Keynote Address

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, asserted that the protests that occurred following the fuel subsidy removal during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2012 were primarily driven by political interests….CONTINUE READING

He made these remarks during a keynote address delivered at a national dialogue organized to celebrate the 60th birthday of Professor Udenta Udenta, the founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy and a Fellow of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, in Abuja.

The event was attended by notable figures, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, and former Minister of Aviation Osita Chidoka, among others.

It is worth noting that on January 1, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy and adjusted the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141, sparking nationwide protests known as ‘Occupy Nigeria.’ After more than a week of protests, the price was later adjusted to N97 before eventually being reduced to N87 in 2015.

Fayemi criticized what he referred to as Nigeria’s “winners take all” style of democracy and argued that the country’s challenges cannot be effectively addressed unless it embraces proportional representation, where election spoils are shared among contestants.

He also noted that the last time Nigeria experienced economic development was during President Jonathan’s administration.

Fayemi 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 the political alternatives. I think we are almost on a dead end of that.

“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 won 21 percent of the votes will have 21 percent of the government. Adversary politics bring division and enmity.

“All political parties in the country agreed and they even put in their manifesto that subsidy must be removed. We all said subsidy must be removed. But we in 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. Let the manifesto of PDP, APC and Labour Party, be put on the table and select all those who will pilot the programme from all parties….CONTINUE READING