The general impression within and outside Ondo State is that Governor Olusegun Mimiko has delivered an unprecedented quality of governance in the state in the last two years, writes SUNDAY ABORISADE Beyond his professional calling, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, born on October 3, 1954 to Pa and Mrs. Atiku Bamidele Mimiko of Ondo town, has an abiding interest in politics.
He predicates his political engagement on the conviction that responsible leadership through a social democratic process provides the basis for the resolution of Nigeria’s crises, and the emancipation of Africa.
Mimiko was appointed the Commissioner for Health and Social Services at the age of 38 in January 1992 in recognition of his extensive involvement in grass roots mobilisation during the Third Republic.
By the time he was leaving office in late 1993 as a result of the military coup d’etat that terminated that republic, Mimiko had left his mark as a performer. He consolidated on that when he also served in the same capacity in the administration of the late Adebayo Adefarati of the Alliance for Democracy between 1999 and 2002.
His intention to contest as governor then, made him to leave the Alliance for Democracy, claiming that the party lacked internal democracy. He later joined the Peoples Democratic Party. After the victory of the party in the April 2003 poll, Mimiko was appointed the Secretary to the State Government.
He was in office until July 2005 when he was appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
It was from this office that Mimiko resigned on December 8, 2006 to contest the April 2007 election under the auspices of the Labour Party. He went to court to challenge the declaration of former Governor Olusegun Agagu as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission. He was vindicated at both the tribunal and the appellate court and was inaugurated as governor in February 29, 2009.
When his administration came on board, the entire 18 local government councils in the state were being controlled by the elected members of the PDP based on the election conducted in December 2007.
His first major political restructuring on assumption of office was to dissolve the executives of the councils and their legislative arm and he appointed caretaker committees to manage their affairs.
The development degenerated into a serious crisis that almost led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the state. The Federal Government was even forced to deploy riot policemen in all the council secretariats to stop Mimiko from sacking the chairmen.
The governor, however, employed legal and democratic means to install LP members as caretaker committee chairmen in all the councils up till today.
Nevertheless, he had maintained that he had not foreclosed the possibility of reversing the March 4, 2009 dissolution of the executive and legislative arms of the 18 local councils, but insisted that such a reversal would only come if a competent court ruled that the council chiefs should be reinstated.
The governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, said he took “full responsibility for the dissolution of the councils and that the decision to dissolve them was taken based on legal advice from the state Ministry of Justice.”
Mimiko said he would not wish to take issues with anybody on the correctness or otherwise of the action because “it has already become a matter before a competent court of law.”
He said, “Issues are already taken and my position has consistently been that since the chairmen of these councils have gone to court and we have joined issues, we should allow the courts of law to adjudicate in this matter.
“So, the reversibility or otherwise of the dissolution of the councils will be the prerogative of the court of law arising from these processes. However, as I have constantly reiterated, ours is a government committed to democratic practice, fairness, rule of law and due process, and we will abide by whatever pronouncement the court makes on this issue.”
Speaking in the same vein, the chairman of the state Law Commission, Chief Sola Ebiseeni, said that the matter should be left for the court to decide.
Ebiseeni, said, “There were so many fundamental blunders committed deliberately by the former Agagu administration to thwart the democratic process.”
The LP was in the minority at the state House of Assembly when Mimiko came on board, but today, the party had secured two-third majority in the House.
It was learnt that Mimiko was able to survive two attempts by his political opponents to sack him from office, using the legislature but his former political adviser, now the senatorial candidate of the LP in Ondo South, Mr. Boluwaji Kunlere, said, “By political calculation and God’s support, we blocked their plans to close down Ondo State House of Assembly.”
However, the political scheming and manoeuvre in the House reached its peak about one year after Mimiko became governor, with the impeachment of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Taofeek Abdusalam, and his deputy, Mr. Mayowa Akinfolarin, from their respective offices.
The action ended the 14-month reign of Abdusalam, who represented Akoko South-East Constituency, while it also brought to an end the seven years of Akinfolarin’s sojourn as the number two man in the legislative arm of the state government.
The assembly had resumed from a long recess and suddenly, news filtered in on April 8, that there had been a change of leadership in the House.
The pro-impeachment lawmakers, comprising 10 members representing the LP; the only AD member and a few members of the PDP had used their vacation to strategise on the easiest way of carrying out the plot. They were said to have met for several weeks before they finally hatched the plot.
Political observers noted that the move to remove Abdusalam started immediately after the inauguration of Mimiko. The plot was alleged to be the idea of some PDP members, who believed that there should be a change in the zoning arrangement and the allocation of posts in the state.
They had argued that the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, and Abdusalam are from the Northern Senatorial district and Mimiko is from the Central district. They noted that the Southern Senatorial district, which produced Agagu as governor, now has no post, following his removal.
Abdusalam survived the intrigue because the PDP in the state was not favourably disposed to any change of leadership in the 26-member House in which it had the majority. But the development paved the way for the LP to identify those it could work with among the PDP lawmakers.
The last move, which led to the sacking of Abdusalam and his deputy, was said to be the fifth attempt made by the lawmakers to remove them from their offices, but each time the plot was initiated, the two men had always managed to wriggle out.
The deed was, however, done when some PDP lawmakers, including Messrs Igbekele Bolodeoku, Idowu Adebusuyi, Samuel Adesina, Fatai Adams and Caroline Olubitan, supported the LP to impeach Abdusalam with heavy security provided by plainclothes officers and people suspected to be men of the State Security Service.
They provided a list containing 18 names of those allegedly in support of the process. The sitting, attended by 15 members of the House, was brief. The motion for impeachment was moved, supported and under 20 minutes, Abdusalam and Akinfolarin were impeached.
Adesina and Adams were nominated for the position of the speaker and during the voting, Adesina, from Odigbo Constituency II in the South Senatorial district, got nine votes, while Adams had six votes.
The development polarised the House with the anti-impeachment lawmakers insisting that the action was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void. They argued that only 15 members were in support of the motion and that the sitting was presided over by Mr. Fidelis Akinwolemiwa, who was not a principal officer of the House.
Abdusalam accused the executive of being the brain behind the plot. He said the state government wanted a change of leadership in order to ensure the passage of the list of members of the Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission, preparatory to the local government elections.
But the spokesperson for the group, Bolodeoku, said that the change was necessary and challenged the members that claimed that their signatures were scanned to proceed to court and prove their case.
He had said, “The House is an independent institution; it had impeached a speaker before. He is here with us today and we have just impeached another person. No governor, whether past or present, has ever sponsored any impeachment in Ondo State.
“We believe that the governor might not have been happy with the leadership position of the House, but we have taken that decision and we want to plead with everyone to accept the decision in good faith because it was taken in the best interest of the people of the state.”
Mimiko, while receiving Adesina in his office, the same day, expressed shock and surprise at the change of leadership in the assembly.
He had said, “Honestly, the development came to us as a surprise. We have always enjoyed a cordial relationship with the House and this could be seen in the speedy passage of the 2010 budget.”
The impeachment had led to the defection of some members of the assembly, including the new speaker, to the LP.
Others who defected are Idowu Adebusuyi and the only AD member, Mr. Abiodun Ogunbi. With the development, the LP, with its initial 10-member minority in the house, now becomes the majority with 15 members, while the PDP has 11 members.
Another major political feat recorded by Mimiko within his two years in office was that his party defeated the PDP in the three by-elections held in the three senatorial districts of the state.
The electoral victory of the LP is being considered by political watchers as the key determinant of the direction, which the April elections will follow in the state.
Here is the original post:
Mimiko:Two years of managing inter-party intrigues