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‘Danger of Jonathan making Mimiko sole anchor-man’

By ABIODUN FANORO
17 February 2015   |   11:00 pm
Chief Segun Ojo, former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Ondo State and Governor Olusegun Mimiko were long time political allies, dating back to the period they served as commissioners under the late Governor Adebayo Adefarati. Ojo, who played a significant role in the emergence of Mimiko a governor, first in 2009 and in…

Ojo

Chief Segun Ojo, former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Ondo State and Governor Olusegun Mimiko were long time political allies, dating back to the period they served as commissioners under the late Governor Adebayo Adefarati. Ojo, who played a significant role in the emergence of Mimiko a governor, first in 2009 and in 2012, spoke to ABIODUN FANORO on the now cat and mouse relationship with Mimiko. It was at an event where the Owo Progressive Forum honoured Ojo with a merit award. 

When and how the relationship got strained

I THINK I misjudged Governor Olusegun Rahman (Mimiko) from the beginning. I would tell you, without any fear of contradiction, that I am one of the ladders he used to climb to political stardom in Ondo State and I am grateful to God for that. 

  Immediately he got into government after the election, we resolved that he should be allowed a free hand to run his government.

  I am such a very reserved and careful person; I don’t want to be rubbished by anybody. So, I quickly moved back to allow him do it, with the intention to serve as a father-figure, advising his team. 

  But when I noticed that he wanted to rubbish me, I moved back almost immediately. Those who came after me — he has been able to rubbish them, and today, they are no more with him. They were seven in number and they are regretting working with him. 

  His ideology of politics is to move round and pick someone that would never oppose him at any time, someone who could never expressed him/herself. Anybody who could not take orders from him, no matter how stupid the order is, would never be picked to work with him. 

  Just recently, he moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A leader of a party in power in a state abandoned and killed the party and just moved on.

  PDP is dead in Ondo State today because of Mimiko. If he had not moved to PDP, PDP would have been climbing high, but he went into PDP with a kiss of death, and that has done it. 

  How laudable and rewarding it would have been if Mimiko had chosen to thread the part of developmental ideology of the late Adefarati! The results are there for people to see — those remarkable things Adefarati achieved with the meagre N41 billion we got in the four years of the administration. 

  That is the same amount Mimiko today receives as two or three months’ allocation from the Federation Account. Today, Mimiko takes N600 million every month as security vote; quote me, N600 million.

  In Ondo State, Mimiko is the Alfa and Omega; all the commissioners working under him have no authority to approve more than N100,000. He gives responsibilities to his commissioners without giving them authority. How do you expect them to perform?

On allegation of falling out with Mimiko because he refused to settle you 

  (Cuts in) Do I need to be settled? I don’t need to be settled. He would have settled me from 2009 when I spent my money. I told you that I am one of the most important ladders he used to climb to stardom. 

  That was the time I needed to be settled. But I took my contribution then in my way; whatever I incurred from my bank to get in there, I needed to settle.

Even as the eye of President Jonathan in Ondo State, no regrets falling out with Mimiko

  When I take my decision, I don’t normally regret. Mimiko is never the man of the moment in Ondo State; he has ceased to be that for a long time. 

  Have you cared to see what has happened when he left Labour Party (LP), where he was the overlord, and went to the PDP? What has happened to the PDP? It is in a state of comma, from which it can never recover, because Mimiko has infected it. 

  When the Jonathan campaign train visited Akure, it was full of regrets; it was a complete failure because of the intractable and irreconcilable level of disunity of the party in the state. 

  All that Jonathan was able to do was to plead with all the various factions to settle their differences.

  It is instructive to note that all these differences and disunity came as soon as Mimiko re-entered the party. 

On some people believing Mimiko’s defection is the best thing to happen to PDP in recent times and an invaluable asset to Jonathan’s re-election bid 

  Mimiko, instead of being an asset, it is the contrary. He is a liability to the PDP and the president’s re-election agenda.

  After Mimiko had wreaked the PDP, people are now looking for where to seek refuge. Anybody that comes to Ondo State will have a smooth road. 

  Jonathan himself knows that he has lost Ondo State by making Mimiko his anchorman in the state. 

  Just like it was in days of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) that whoever contested on its platform in the Southwest was sure of victory, the same goes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, in the light of what Mimiko has done to the PDP in the state.

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