By Chimaobi Afiauwa, Abuja
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has openly confessed that the protest against the Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2012 for the removal of fuel subsidies was politically orchestrated by the APC.
Fayemi made these confessional remarks at a national dialogue organized in commemoration of the 60th birthday celebration of the founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy and Fellow, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Professor Udenta Udenta, in Abuja on Tuesday.
It would be recalled that in January 2012, Jonathan’s administration announced the removal of fuel subsidies, increasing the unit price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, from N67 to N97 per liter.
The price increment was received with a public outcry and resistance from the opposition, which led to a nationwide protest christened Occupy Nigeria.
Two major opposition political parties, the ACN and the ANPP, which later merged with other parties to form the APC, championed the protest.
Jonathan’s administration, after the backlash it received for removing fuel subsidies, succumbed to pressure and reduced the price to N87.
But commenting on the controversy generated by Jonathan’s attempt to remove fuel subsidies, Fayemi, who spoke at the event attended by ex-president Jonathan himself, Osita Chidoka, Oby Ezekwesili, and other notable dignitaries, said, “All political parties in the country agreed, and they even put in their manifesto that subsidies must be removed.
“We all said subsidies must be removed. But we in ACN at the time, in 2012, knew the truth, sir (referring to Jonathan), but it was all politics.”
While condemning what he described as Nigeria’s politics of “winners take all,” Fayemi opined that the nation’s challenges today cannot be surmounted until we as a nation embrace what he described as proportional representation.
He further explained that under such arrangements, contestants across party lines share political offices or form a unity government at the end of electioneering based on their performance.
“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.”
Fayemi, to the consternation of many, also confessed that the last time Nigeria experienced economic development was during Jonathan’s administration.
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 away from the political alternatives. I think we are almost at a dead end with that.
“What we need is alternative politics, and my notion of alternative politics is that you can’t have 35 percent of the vote and take 100 percent. It won’t work.”
