- Fayemi blames politics for protests against 2012 subsidy removal
Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Ex- President Goodluck Jonathan has blamed Nigeria’s founding fathers for doing a poor job at nation building.
Jonathan spoke as chairman of the occasion
during a national dialogue and public presentation of 21 books, held in honour of Prof. Udenta Udenta, as part of activities to mark his 60th birthday, in Abuja, on Tuesday, he said however that they deserve credit for the struggle for independence and victory which followed.
He compared Udenta to former Tanzanain president, Julius Nyerere, whom he said championed Tanzanaian nationhood.
He said that Nigerian founding fathers unlike Nyerere paid greater emphasis on ethnic and identity politics at the expense of building Nigeria into a cohesive nation.
Jonathan said, “He (Nyerere) made sure that every person from Tanzania speaks that (one) language, those who go to primary, secondary and tertiary schools quickly adhered to this as Nyerere made education compulsory.
“So, you hardly see somebody who didn’t get at least basic knowledge of the language in what we call the first nine years of school education. At that level, you communicate in Swahili.”
Ex-President Jonathan recalled that his modest attempt at nation building was the driving force behind the 2014 national conference which was designed to addressed some of the fault lines that have kept Nigerians apart.
He expressed confidence that if the recommendations of the 2014 conference were not only adopted but implemented, “We will not say we have a country called Nigeria, we will not say we have a state called Nigeria, we will also say we have a nation called Nigeria.”
Jonathan said, “Have we been able to convince ourselves whether we are a state or a nation? If we are a country and a state, how do we become a nation?
“I am not blaming our founding fathers but they failed to integrate us into a proper nation. They operated as individuals and so on.
“Of course, if you have read some of the comments of our former leaders, someone like (Obafemi) Awolowo made it very clear that there was no nation called Nigeria. That it is a geographical entity, it is a country, it is a state, it has laws but there is no nation.
“The country was so polarized especially during the early political party formation and the parties were regional parties.
“There was no sense of commitment to integrate Nigeria into an entity that you can say yes, this is a nation with core values, common philosophy and people will be patriotic to that nation.
“Most of the parties that time belonged to regions and there were no alliances for the purpose of ruling the country.
Meanwhile, former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi in his keynote address said politics motivated the protest that trailed the fuel subsidy removal during the administration of President Jonathan in 2012.
The programme was attended by Jonathan, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, among others.
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
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.”
Also speaking during the event, former Minister of Aviation and a chieftain of the PDP, Osita Chidoka, said as the nation awaits the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court on Wednesday, parties should prepare to accept the outcome.
Specifically, the PDP Chieftain advised President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to be prepared to relocate to Lagos and prepare for the 2027 general elections if he loses at the court.
Chidoka said, “If the court says Tinubu is no longer the President, he should pack his things and go to Lagos and prepare for the next election. If they say he is the president, we will continue our agitation for the reform of the electoral management system.”
