…says Nigeria last experienced economic development under Jonathan
Abuja—Former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Kayode has confessed that the APC was simply playing politics when it organised the occupy Nigeria protests to resist the removal of fuel subsidies by the President GoodLuck Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2012.
The Vanguard reports that Fayemi made the confession during his remarks at a national dialogue organised in commemoration of 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, on Tuesday.
Commenting on the controversy generated by Jonathan’s attempt to remove fuel subsidies, Fayemi, who spoke with Ex-President Jonathan and other dignitaries sitting on the high table 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 Sir, (referring to Jonathan) but it is all politics.”
While condemning what he described as Nigeria’s politics of “winners take all”, Fayemi noted that the nation’s challenges today cannot be summounted until such a time we as a nation embraced what he described as proportional representation.
Under such an arrangement, he explained, contestants across party lines share political offices or form a unity government at the end of electioneering based on their performance.
He said, “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.”
He equally confessed that the last time Nigeria experienced economic development was during the Jonathan’s administration
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.
