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A former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday, said the protest that trailed the fuel subsidy removal during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 was due to political interests.
Fayemi said this in his keynote address delivered at a national dialogue organised to celebrate the 60th birthday celebration of the founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy and Fellow, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Professor Udenta Udenta in Abuja.
The programme was attended by Jonathan, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, among others.
On January 1, 2012, President Goodluck announced the removal of fuel subsidy and adjusted the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141.
The decision sparked mass protests, tagged ‘Occupy Nigeria’ across major cities of the country.
The price was later re-adjusted to N97, after more than a week of protests.
Petrol price was later reduced to N87 in 2015.
Jonathan faced serious backlash for the fuel price adjustment, especially from leaders of the All Progressives Congress, who were then in different opposition parties, including the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressives Congress, All Nigeria Peoples Party, and All Progressive Grand Alliance.
While condemning what he described as the “winners take all” style of Nigeria’s democracy, Fayemi said the challenges facing the nation today cannot be solved unless the country embraced proportional representation, where the spoils of elections are shared between contestants.
According to him, the last time Nigeria experienced economic development was during Jonathan’s administration.