11 years after, Fayemi admits fuel subsidy protest under Jonathan was ‘mere politics’

The former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, said on Tuesday the January 2012 protest against the removal of fuel subsidy by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had a political undertone.

Fayemi stated this in a keynote address at a national dialogue organised to mark the 60th birthday of the founding national secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Udenta Udenta, in Abuja.

The Civil Society Organsations (CSOs) and opposition figures came together to organise a mass protest tagged: “Occupy Nigeria” across the country following the former president’s announcement on the removal of the fuel subsidy in his January 1, 2012 national broadcast.

Following the announcement, the price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol rose from N65 per litre to N141 to spark anger in the country.

Jonathan later reinstated the subsidy and reduced the fuel pump price to N97 per litre after a meeting with the organised labour in Abuja.

READ ASLO: Fuel consumption in Nigeria drops by 12.96m after fuel subsidy removal

At the forum, the former governor urged Nigeria to take another look at its political system.

He stressed that Nigeria would begin to achieve development if the country embraced proportional representation where the spoils of elections are shared between contestants.

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.

“What we need is alternative politics and my own notion of alternative politics is that you can’t have 35 percent 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 percent of the vote will have 21 percent of the government. The truth is that adversaries’ 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 the 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.”

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