Human rights activist and vocal advocate for civic engagement, Aisha Yesufu, has taken issue with former presidential candidate Peter Obi over his recent remarks criticising the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protest against fuel subsidy removal.
Obi, speaking at the memorial of the late elder statesman Edwin Clark on Wednesday, suggested that the protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s fuel subsidy removal was misguided and unnecessary.
In response, Yesufu released a YouTube video where she firmly disagreed with Obi’s stance, describing his remarks as “a very wrong allusion.”
“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,” she said.
Yesufu reminded Obi that public protest is a fundamental democratic right and a tool for civic accountability, regardless of who is in power.
“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,” she said.
She added, “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.”
Yesufu, who was a strong supporter of Obi during the 2023 general elections, stressed that her loyalty lies with principles, not personalities. She insisted she would not hesitate to protest against Obi if he failed to deliver on good governance.
She also responded to Obi’s comparison between protests over fuel price hikes in 2012 and the current silence despite petrol now selling for N900 per litre.
“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 said.
She concluded by reinforcing the relevance of the 2012 protests, saying, “If there was any time a protest should have happened, it was during Jonathan.”
