Former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, characterized the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protest against the proposed removal of petrol subsidy by then-President Goodluck Jonathan’sadministration as a “politically motivated” event.
Fayemi expressed these views during his keynote address at the 60th birthday celebration of Prof. Udenta Udenta, the founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy and Fellow at the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought. The event was attended by notable figures such as former President Jonathan, former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili, and former Minister of Aviation Osita Chidoka.
Fayemi went on to highlight his agreement with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent interview in TheCable, where Obasanjo criticized the effectiveness of Nigeria’s liberal democracy and called for a reevaluation. Fayemi endorsed this perspective, emphasizing the need for a shift towards “alternative politics.” He argued that the current winner-takes-all approach, where a party with 35 percent of the vote assumes 100 percent control, is unsustainable. Instead, Fayemi advocated for proportional representation to ensure that parties receive a corresponding share of government representation based on their vote percentages. He argued that adversarial politics fosters division and enmity among the populace.
Fayemi also pointed out that all major political parties in the country had, at one point, included in their manifestos the removal of petrol subsidy. He acknowledged that this stance was taken for political reasons, and he suggested a new approach where the manifestos of parties such as the PDP, APC, and Labour Party would be considered collectively. This would involve selecting individuals from all parties to oversee and implement the government’s programs.
He recalled that President Jonathan had announced the removal of petrol subsidy in January 2012, which led to nationwide protests led by Fayemi and other leaders of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The protests resulted in a readjustment of the petrol price from N141 to N97 per litre. Fayemi also noted that the ACN later merged with other parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC), which, under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, eventually removed petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023. This removal caused the price of petrol to skyrocket from N184 to N600 per litre.
