Fayemi said for selfish reasons, they (the opposition) mobilised against Jonathan’s fuel subsidy removal plan.
Barely 24 hours after former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said ex-President Muhammadu Buhari presided over the economic ruination of Nigeria, a former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has added his voice.
Sanusi had said of the Buhari’s government: “They treated the economy the way they wanted and refused to listen to experts. In the last eight years, only sycophancy succeeded. The sycophants bought dollars at N400 and sold N540.”
At a book launch on Tuesday, Fayemi said the last time Nigeria enjoyed economic development was during the government of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Recall that Tinubu’s Finance Minister, Wale Edun, had during his maiden press conference after his inauguration, subtly made the same assertion when he said the last time Nigeria experienced economic stability was ten years ago, which was the time of Jonathan.
He had said: “If we think back to when was the last time the economy was stable, when it was growing, when inflation was low, when the exchange rate was stable, and when interest rates were affordable; that period was about a decade ago,” he said.
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Fayemi confessed that despite the mudslinging they in the opposition hurled against Jonathan, his administration was the last that gave Nigeria economic development.
He 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.
Fayemi also confessed that their resistance against the removal of subsidy was to advance their interest.
Recall that after the government of then President Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy on January 1, 2012 which pushed the price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141, Lagos was shut down by aggrieved protesters in what they termed Occupy Nigeria. It lasted almost a week until the federal government reversed the fuel subsidy removal policy, and adjusted the price of fuel to N87.
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.
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. 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.
“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 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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