Indications have emerged to the effect that the former Governor of Ondo state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko is under heavy pressure to officially declare for the All Progressives Congress ( APC), ahead of the state’s scheduled gubernatorial election.
A source close to the only living former governor of the state, hinted that the Ondo born politician may as well be a victim of subtle blackmail, from the interests insisting he must officially declare for the party , to boost it’s very slender chance of winning the November 16 election.
The source explained that Mimiko was not in good terms with the Late Rotimi Akeredolu, the immediate past governor of the state and thus had reasons to pitch tent with his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa , while as the then deputy governor, had a running battle with his boss, before and during the sickness that eventually led to his demise.
Even as opposition People Democratic Party’s(PDP) leader, Mimiko was alleged to be Aiyedatiwa’s chief strategist who hand picked many of his aides for the governor, to enable him the coming election, against his own party, the PDP.
According to the source, Mimiko never envisaged the unity in the PDP as being witnessed today, adding however, that ” he became uncomfortable when the aspirants started talking about a consensus candidate and Agbo appeared more favoured”
The APC, the source continued, was comfortable with any of the aspirants but Agbo, as opposition candidate, adding that Mimiko himself knew how impossible it will be for Lucky to defeat Agbo, especially when he is not enjoying support from the core of APC leaders, the presidency, as well as the unpopularity of APC as a party and Lucky himself as a candidate.
He offered further, that efforts were made to stop Agbo from becoming the candidate by every means possible. From the blues, a Mimiko loyalist, Kolade Akinjo emerged and his aspiration allegedly bankrolled by the APC, with Mimiko mentioned as the mastermind of the Akinjo gubernatorial aspiration which died almost immediately it came to the fore.
As events later turned out, PDP had an unprecedented free and fair primary election, with Agbo emerging the party’s flag bearer and according to the source” our members started defecting in droves to the PDP and our own candidate and the people he rely on as egg heads,started developing cold feet”
The source, who is an APC chieftain from Ondo Central said the pressure “being mounted on Mimiko to join our party heightened my fear that we may afterall no be in the November race and lose it like many in the state have predicted”
Explaining the implication of the Mimiko’s defection, the APC chieftain, who interestingly, is an active member of the party, said the former governor will only be coming to meet a sharply divided party lacking in members camaraderie and good image.
According to him, ” most of us are only in the party in flesh not in spirit, we are only tagging along till when everybody will be able to show their colour. There is nothing Mimiko is coming to do than to justify whatever it is he has been benefitting from Lucky.
“What magic is Mimiko coming to perform beyond what most of us here can not perform. Somebody who couldn’t secure his own successor and failed to win a mere Senatorial election after a whole eight years as governor, tell me, what does such a person has to offer Lucky. The governor has suddenly become a father Christmas and unfortunately busy patronizing spent politicians, expired leaders, who have since lost relevance in the state, while we in the party are hungry.
” Truth is, pressure has been on some of the opposition people collecting money from Lucky to identify with him publicly as a counter measure against the uncontrollable rate of defections of our people to the PDP.
” If the people who are going to vote have decided to pitch their tent with somebody they know and believe in, what can ten Mimikos do about that. How do you tell an hungry man to continue to be hopeful after many years of dashed hope, especially when they have an alternative. Politics is local. People are going to determine who rules them, because it’s obvious the idea of pushing out money to buy votes on election day may not work this time unfortunately. The usual issues of vote buying and figure allocation won’t work again except we want a repeat of the 1983 episode.
” We know what the people want, we know their preference in the next election. We are their leaders, we have talked to them and they have explained reasons they are decamping everyday to some of us and we can’t fault them because we know the reasons they gave are tenable as we are victims of the bad system too. If anything, the inability to conduct a transparent primary complicated the whole issue for our party. Believe me, those aggrieved aspirants are not working for Lucky, we know where their followers are rushing to.
” I doubt if we have solution to the problem on ground. Spent political leaders cant solve this with minority endorsements. Our people are not pretending and the Federal government that could influence things in our favour is unfortunately very unpopular”
Sources who should know, also told this reporter that Mimiko did not approach the politically active among his followers about his APC adventure.
A confidant of the former governor, whose name appear on the list of defectors, told this reporter the former governor is on a solo run. “It’s been basically a solo run by Oga. He since stopped enjoying the patronage of the core politicians among his followers. That’s why the names on the list of the defectors you see are basically those of us who are politically active only when we have appointments. Most of us have no rapport with the APC as we speak and I doubt if oga himself will be declaring for the APC anytime soon, because those in the party are not comfortable with him joining them either”
