… Tasks INEC on polling booth redesign to curb vote-buying

… Tells Nigerians to demand accountability from govs

A former governorship candidate under the platform of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in Ondo State, Dr. Abass Mimiko, has unveiled a political coalition designed to mobilize nationwide support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid ahead of the 2027 elections.

The coalition, known as the ‘One Love Coalition,’ according to Mimiko, will draw members from across political parties, ethnic groups, religious affiliations, and social classes who believe the Tinubu administration is steering the country in the right direction.

Mimiko, who is the younger brother of former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, disclosed this at the weekend during an interview with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ondo State Council.

He said the initiative was not an APC structure but a platform for Nigerians who wanted to support Tinubu without necessarily joining the ruling party.

“We are putting up a coalition. We call it the One Love Coalition of Like Minds. Your own pocket donation. Like they used to do in America. Put your one dollar on the ground, and put your two dollars. And we then lead a campaign, a media campaign, street to street, door to door.

“We call our own One Love Coalition. One love keeps us together. The whole idea is we don’t want Nigeria that will splinter. We want a Nigeria where there will be freedom enough for the regions,” he stated

Explaining why he was supporting Tinubu despite remaining a committed member of the ZLP, Mimiko said the president should not be viewed exclusively through the prism of the APC, arguing that Nigerians who did not belong to the party could also support his administration.

“President Bola Tinubu doesn’t belong to APC alone. He is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He belongs to all of us.”

According to Mimiko, the coalition would embark on an extensive grassroots campaign to educate Nigerians on what he described as the achievements of the Tinubu administration, particularly in education, infrastructure, and other sectors, while also engaging students, market women, and people from all walks of life.

He warned that beneficiaries of federal programs such as the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) should not assume that such programs would automatically continue under future administrations, stressing that his support for Tinubu was not motivated by the prospect of political appointment or access to campaign funds.

“If I wanted a political appointment, I’d run to APC. If I want to share in the largesse of what is coming down for the campaign, I will run to APC. We’re not doing this for pecuniary gains. If you know me very well, I’m a very private person by disposition. But to whom much is given, much is expected,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mimiko challenged Nigerians to demand greater transparency from state governors over the trillions of naira allocated to states, saying citizens should insist on meaningful improvements in their lives rather than directing every complaint about poor living conditions at the federal government.

“I don’t think it is the responsibility of the president to come to a state and say, ‘You have N50 billion; do agriculture.'” Mend your roads. Do primary healthcare. Make education more affordable for your people. I am of the opinion that people must call out their governors regarding, ‘What are you doing with this huge allocation?'” Mimiko said.

He lamented that vote-selling had weakened the ability of citizens to hold political office holders accountable, recalling instances of voters exchanging their votes for small sums of money, and urged Nigerians to reject the mentality of trading their votes for immediate financial gratification.

On electoral reform, Mimiko called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redesign the arrangement of polling booths to make voting more private and frustrate attempts by vote buyers to determine how voters cast their ballots, citing the visibility around voting booths as a loophole that enables monitoring of voters.