Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

I’ll not sacrifice people’s welfare for free enterprise, says Mimiko. By Richard Onobumeh Abu, Guardian March 13, 2007

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LAST week in Lagos, the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, at an “endorsement dinner” organised by his friends, unfolded his agenda encapsulated in the theme, “Caring Heart.”

With his people-oriented manifesto, Mimiko believes that he is the right person to make the sun shine again in the “Sunshine State.”

Amidst shouts of “Iroko 2007″ and “Divine Agenda” from his friends, Mimiko, a former Minister of Housing and Urban Development, said that he would rebuild Ondo by addressing the heart of the social, economic and leadership problems facing the people.

The medical doctor turned politician said that the greatest attribute of leadership is character, and that he would bring this into governance to make the state a showpiece of economic and social development.

Although he admits that education and experience are necessary, he noted: “I have also come to the conclusion, after several years in public service and at different levels, that what is most important to deliver good governance is not education. It is not even experience, but character. Unfortunately, this is what has been in very short supply in Ondo public domain and this is what we are bringing to the table.”

Mimiko said he subscribed to the principle that responsible leadership, emergent through a social democratic process, should form the basis of resolving Nigeria’s myriad of crises. His words: “I am of the conviction that its supposed advantages notwithstanding, authoritarian rule runs against the grain of the human spirit steeped, as it were, in freedom. Dictatorship is therefore incompatible with the attainment of man’s deeper social aspirations and fundamentally antithetical to good governance.”

Mimiko is also not impressed with the pace of development in the state since 2003. He said that if the current tempo were maintained, it would take the people 1,000 years to have access to social amenities.

The remedy, he said, is in the change of leadership for a more pragmatic, visionary and focused person. His words: “I have come to the conclusion that using the existing paradigm of development, it would take more than 1,000 years before every road in Ondo that needs to be worked upon is attended to. Our response to this scary and certainly unacceptable situation is a completely new paradigm of development.

“It is a distinctive governance system predicated on using existing communal structures as the building blocks of governmental action. We therefore offer a government that is selfless, transparent, forthright and committed to the generation of wealth for the good of all. It is a government in which every citizen is taken as a critical stakeholder. It is a government that is a catalyst of development and is committed to the deployment of the resources of Ondo for the development of the citizens, an all-inclusive platform for individual wellbeing, corporate harmony and progressive politics.”

Arguing that there is a fundamental disconnect between the rulers and the ruled through a new style of governance predicated on a thinly-veiled disdain for the people by their political leaders in the state, Mimiko said: “My goal is to provide an enlightened, selfless and committed leadership for our people. I will create a new confidence in government, create the type of environment that will ensure that every individual and community sees himself or itself and act as a major stakeholder in the rapid socioeconomic transformation of our state.

“The first assignment before us is to bring back the people’s confidence in government. This is the critical platform on which any agenda for development can be achieved,” he said.

Under his 12-point agenda for repositioning the state, Mimiko said the people would be the lead actors in the development of agriculture and attainment of food security; community-driven city and coastal region renewal and general development initiatives, aggressive capitalisation of land resources; roads and infrastructure as well as industrialisation.

He added that through the collective efforts of the people, the existing communal structure of leadership would be strengthened to build blocks against poverty. It would also promote gender equality and women empowerment, subsidise social services such as healthcare and housing, education and capacity building, artisanship development and empowerment programme, rural development, and tourism, sports and youth development.

He insisted that he would not embrace the free enterprise spirit at the expense of the welfare of the people. “While I believe in a liberalised, private sector-driven economy, I am of convinced that government, especially in an under-developed economy, must intervene responsibly in direct employment and provision of subsidised social services like health, education, social housing, soft credit and other poverty-reduction mechanisms,” Mimiko said.