Fayemi: We knew truth but played politics against subsidy removal in 2012

The immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, says politicians, especially the members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) played politics against the removal of fuel subsidy by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012.

It would be recalled that there were protests across Nigeria after Jonathan, on January 1, 2012, announced the removal of fuel subsidy and adjusted the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), fondly called petrol, from N65 per litre to N141.

The price was later re-adjusted to N97, after more than a week of protests.

Petrol price was later reduced to N87 in 2015.

Politicians, especially leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were then in the defunct ACN, also lashed out at Jonathan over the fuel price adjustment.

However, Fayemi, while speaking at a national dialogue organised to celebrate the 60th birthday celebration of the founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy and Fellow, Prof. Udenta Udenta, in Abuja on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, said the ACN leaders knew the trust but condemned the fuel subsidy removal in 2012 due to political interests.

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The former governor said: “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, 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.”

Fayemi further corroborated former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the need to work on the country’s democracy, saying: “Today, I read former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview 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 per cent of the votes will have 21 per cent of the government. Adversary politics bring division and enmity.”

Others at the event were Jonathan, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; and former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka; among others.

The Star