ZLP picks Mimiko as presidential candidate

Former governor Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has emerged the presidential primary election of the Zenith Labour Party(ZLP).

Mimiko who governed Ondo state between 2009 and 2016 on the platform of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), respectively, was unanimously elected without opposition by members of the party on Sunday at its national convention that took place at Chelsea Hotel, Abuja.

The former governor who defected from the PDP to pursue his presidential ambition recently emerged through endorsement by all the party delegates from the 36 state of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Chief Returning Officer and the Chairman of the party, Dan Nwanyanwu, said the candidate had fulfilled all the requirements of the constitution of the party.

In his acceptance speech, Mimiko who said with the social democratic ideological orientation of ZLP, the process through which ZLP emerged, its pedigree and those of its leading lights, he will not have trouble convincing Nigerians why it is the preferred option for them in the elections of 2019.

The former governor averred that “as a social democratic party, committed to the enduring principles of good governance, utilitarianism (the greatest good to the greatest number), and a restructured federal system for Nigeria, ZLP is set to capture the imagination of Nigerians, and lead the process of renewing our republic.”

Mimiko said, “I am resolutely committed to a programme of restructuring the Nigerian federation. This is with a view to affording every segment of the country the opportunity and privilege of development at its own pace, and in such a manner that the age-long beauty in competitive development would be fully tapped.

“I am persuaded beyond any doubt, as I said in my declaration statement, that such would give vent to ‘that indomitable spirit of Nigerians, that spirit of accomplishment, which has made stars of individual Nigerians all over the world.

“With 91 registered political parties and several of them fielding candidates in the upcoming presidential election, our duty as the flag bearer of our vibrant party, ZLP, is to bring to the attention of Nigerians those things that separate us from the pack.”

Mimiko urged the members of the party not be intimidated by the big parties, rather, on the size and weight of our ideas.

According to him, “We must focus on the purity of our ideological commitment. We must focus on our passion and compassion for the weak and the poor in society. We must focus on the clarity of our vision and thought that we bring to the fore for Nigerian as we go into the elections.

“Let no mistake be made, we shall be calling upon Nigerians to assess us on the basis of what we had done in the recent past with political power. We shall juxtapose this with what our opponents have been able to do, as a critical element in helping Nigerians make up their minds about who deserves to be invested with power.

“It is with the confidence in the ability of Nigerians to make this existential decision in the 2019 elections that I go into the next phase in our struggle to save this country from an extant division, poverty, and insecurity. We are out to disrupt settled assumptions, by focusing on our new ideological narratives that affect the people directly.”