Governor Olusegun Mimiko Returns...

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Thursday
formally dumped the Labour Party and returned to the
Peoples Democratic Party, saying his decision was taken
in the interest of the nation.
He made the formal declaration at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja, at an event presided over by Vice President
Namadi Sambo and witnessed by the President of the
Senate, David Mark, as well as the PDP leaders from the
South West.
“I, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, following extensive
consultations across the land, today finally announce the
decision of members of the National Assembly from the
LP in Ondo State, members of the LP in Ondo State,
members of the LP in the Ondo State House of
Assembly, members of the State Executive Council, and
indeed, all those who share our aspirations to join the
PDP,” Mimiko told the gathering that included Governor
Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and former Governor
Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State.
He said he took the decision to return to the PDP in the
overall interest of his people and the nation, as well as its
democracy which is now mortally endangered by a
constellation of forces, which must be confronted.
Mimiko, in his declaration speech tagged, “The
Imperative of a New, Broader Platforms,” said his
immediate target was to help the process of getting
President Goodluck Jonathan re-elected in 2015.
He said, “I must confess that it surely was tempting and
perhaps more fulfilling to continue as a national leader in
our smaller, calmer and quite promising ocean
represented by the Labour Party.
“But this decision to return to the PDP we have taken in
the overall interest of our people and our nation, and its
democracy which for those who are perceptive enough to
notice, is now mortally endangered by a constellation of
forces which must be confronted.
“May I then add that we take this epochal decision
conscious of the fact that no political party in Nigeria
today is anywhere near the point of perfection. But we
are persuaded that joining hands with other Nigerians,
committed as they are at repositioning the PDP on a
continual basis, is the appropriate thing to do today.
“And considering that it was under this same PDP that I
was privileged to serve, first as Secretary to the
Government of Ondo State and later as Minister of
Housing and Urban Development from July 2005 –
December 2006, this is for us a homecoming of sort.”
Mimiko said he would remain committed to Jonathan’s
re-election because the President had been faithful to his
promise to ensure free and fair electoral process.
He said the current administration’s successes in the
areas of agriculture, power, health, education, housing
and economy, among others, had further endeared the
President to him.
Mimiko said he had always supported the Jonathan
Presidency, adding that even from the LP platform, he
and his loyalists endorsed, worked for the and voted
massively for the President in 2011.
This, he said, did not prevent them from working for the
LP candidates where it fielded candidates and in
subsequent polls.
“With the 2015 INEC time-table which put Presidential and
National Assembly elections on the same day, it has
become obvious that the type of support we need to give
President Jonathan without creating conflict of interest is
better canalised through the President’s political party,
the PDP.
“Our support for the President will, in the light of the
above, not jeopardise the legitimate electoral aspirations
of our teeming supporters and associates,” he declared.
Mimiko observed that Nigeria’s political history had
demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the
nation had always moved in the direction of a two-party
system.
While saying that the current dispensation had thrown up
the PDP and what he called “the fledgling APC,” the
governor added that smaller parties were thus
constrained at operating only at the fringe of the political
process with all the restrictions thereto for greater
political involvement and action.
Historically, Mimiko said every attempt to build a third
force in the bipolar environment had not only been quite
expensive but had met with muted success.
He said the tendency at democratic governance was one
reason that made the PDP attractive and accounted for
his reason to take its membership in 2003.
Sambo, who represented the President, said Mimiko had
returned to the PDP to raise the party to higher level in
the state and South-West.
He directed the party’s National Deputy Chairman, Uche
Secondus, and the National Secretary, Wale Oladipo, to
immediately organised a rally during which the governor
would be formally received in Akure.
“Iroko, Kaabo. Eku ise (Iroko, welcome and well done,”
he said as he presented the PDP flag to Mimiko.