Aisha Yesufu, an activist and one of the supporters of Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has openly disagreed with Obi’s recent comments on the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protest against fuel subsidy removal.
In a YouTube video uploaded on Thursday, Yesufu criticised Obi’s remarks that there was no need for protests during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration when fuel prices increased from N87 to N120.
She said, “First of all, I’m going to start with where Mr Peter Obi said there was no need to protest during Jonathan’s time. I think that’s a very wrong allusion to have like there’s no need to protest.”
Yesufu emphasised that protest is a fundamental right in a democracy, regardless of who is in power.
She said, “Let’s look at Nigeria for example and let’s look at countries in the other parts of the world where they are doing very well. People are protesting every day, there’s never a time where there’s no need to protest.
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“And if Mr Obi thinks he’s gonna get into office and think people will not protest no matter how good he is, then he should drop that.”
According to her, should Obi eventually become Nigeria’s President, she would not hesitate to demonstrate if necessary.
Responding further, Yesufu countered Obi’s point, adding the Jonathan’s time of N120 per litre was also a better time to protest because the current situation was then, in the future and nobody protest what is in the future.
“What Peter Obi needs to understand, and what everybody needs to understand is that, at that time, people were protesting against N120. The N900 of today was in the future. Nobody protests for the future,” she argued.
“If there was any time a protest should have happened, it was during Jonathan,” the activist added.
and then