Hitting Iroko in the Jugular
H e came into limelight in 1999 at the commencement of the present democratic dispensation.
Dr Rahman Olusegun Mimiko, incumbent Governor of Ondo State became prominent immediately he was made commissioner for health by late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, who was elected Governor of Ondo State in 1999 on the ticket of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, (AD). Mimiko, from Ondo West area of the state introduced the health Rangers’ Scheme which earned him fame and became a member of Adefarati’s kitchen cabinet.
Some of the late former governor’s aides had immediately saw the desperate lust for power in Mimiko and moved immediately to checkmate him. Late Chief Adefarati was warned but he turned deaf ears because of his trust in this growing ‘Iroko” a nick name for Mimiko. He was rumoured to be nursing a governorship ambition to stop Adefarati from his second term ambition, an allegation Mimiko denied each time he was confronted with the allegation by his boss.
in what was seen as a confirmation of the rumour, he later resigned from late Adefarati’s cabinet and announced his governorship ambition and his decision to challenge his boss at the primary election of the AD. But the structures of the party and the powers that be in the AD moved against him by hurriedly announcing the adoption of Adefarati as the sole candidate for the 2003 governorship election in the state. Angered by this, Mimiko left AD and began romance with late Dr Olusegun Agagu, who was a serving minister in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration at the federal level.
Mimiko was seen as a very good tool to be used to grab power from the AD government in Ondo State by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) which was then very desperate to make an in road to the south west geo political zone, then the den and sole property of the AD. Mimiko’s official declaration for the PDP came up at the sports complex in Akure, the state capital and was personally attended by Chief Obasanjo. It worked, at the election which followed later in the year with Agagu as the governorship candidate saw the PDP winning the election.
Dr Mimiko was immediately made secretary to the state government despite protests by PDP members who knew him and what he could do. Agagu promised party members that he was capable of checkmating the Iroko despite his numerous supporters which he brought into the party. True to his words, the office of secretary to government became an island for Mimiko as little or no responsibility was put under that office. The few ones assigned to that office were handled by two permanent secretaries who were loyalists of Agagu.
As a man that has the ability to explore into the future, Mimiko immediately knew that his political journey might immediately come to an end if he should continue in that office and that the promise by Agagu to spend one term and there after handed over to him was being threatened by pressures from PDP members that Agagu should go for the second term. Mimiko linked up with his connections which earned him a ministerial slot under President Obasanjo without the knowledge of his boss Dr Agagu.
He was assigned the Urban Development Ministry. As usual, he immediately started to use the federal ministry to empower his supporters through contracts and seminars abroad preparatory to challenging his former boss whenever the contest for the governorship of the state comes up in 2007.
Despite intervention by former President Obasanjo that Mimiko should allow Agagu to go for the second term, he refused and when he saw that he had been pushed to the wall in the PDP, he resigned his appointment as a minister and teamed up with others to form Labour Party, (LP) one of the political parties registered to participate in 2007 elections. He had no problem as he became the sole candidate of the LP for the governorship election in the state. He contested with Dr Agagu but the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) declared Agagu of the PDP winner of the election. But dissatisfied with the results, Mimiko challenged the outcome at the Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Garba Labaruma nullified the election of Dr Agagu and declared Mimiko winner of the election, a decision which was equally upheld by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo state. Thus, on February, 24, 2009, Dr Mimiko was sworn in as the executive Governor of Ondo State. He was welcomed with love and joy by the people of the state who seemed to have been tired with the programmes and actions of Agagu government. Mimiko promised the people of the state at his inauguration that he would know each and every one of them by the first name and that none of them would go to the bed with an empty stomach.
True to his words, his first term in office saw the rapid transformation of the state. He was reported between 2009 and 2013 as the Governor in Nigeria that had the highest number of political appointees. He succeeded in carrying along his supporters during the first until he began a cabinet reshuffle which saw some of them out of his government.
The state chairmen of his LP, Dr Olaiya Oni also resigned and later teamed up with the then opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN). Sensing that he might lose the 2013 governorship election, he ran to President Goodluck Jonathan and made fruitless attempts to ensure that the PDP did not field any candidate against him. Though not lucky, he got the support of the presidency which saw him winning the election for the second term in office.
His defection to the ruling PDP before the last presidential election led to the destabilisation of the PDP in the state with old members of the party kicking against the manner of his defection which did not carry along party members in the state. His request to be the sole leader to pick candidates for the recently concluded elections also saw the PDP losing the state to the opposition APC.
Mimiko was made the south west coordinator of the presidential campaign committee of President Jonathan. He had promised to deliver one million votes to President Jonathan in the March 28 election. The outcome of the election saw the PDP losing the state to the APC which won two out the senatorial seats including the Ondo Central, where Mimiko comes from and five out of the nine House of Representatives out of nine seats.
Dr. Mimiko has been reflecting on the outcome of the presidential and national assembly trying to visualize where things actually went wrong. Where were his foot soldiers at the local government levels and the supporters of those candidates he single handedly handpicked for the election? What of the huge amount of money he collected and spent to ensure victory for the PDP? But, political pundits in the state simply believe that it was simply payback time for Dr Mimiko in the politics of the state.
According to them, Mimiko believes in himself to the extent that he thinks with the power of incumbency and support form Abuja, nothing was impossible for him. “That was why he singlehandedly picked candidates for the election and promised to deliver one million votes in his pocket for the PDP.” With the victory of the APC candidate in the presidential election leading to change of baton of leadership, it seems Mimiko has boxed himself into a corner. He is running round to ensure victory for House of Assembly’s candidates in Saturday’s election as this is the only chance left for the governor, who lost his deputy to the opposition APC two days to the last presidential election. His second term in office will terminate in 2017.
He is begging workers in the state who he once used and dumped, appealing to them to save him from imminent loss and collapse of his political empire. The executives of workers union in the state are finding it extremely difficult to walk freely because of their roles in the second term bid of Dr Mimiko who failed to meet his own side of the bargain to the workers after his victory at the election. His government is owing workers in the state two months’ salary out of which one month was hurriedly paid before the presidential election. The old PDP members are not ready to forgive him as he would have laid claim to the victory if the PDP had won the last election in the state.
