Governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in Ondo State, Dr Abbas Mimiko, has thrown his weight behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms, insisting that the President should not be blamed for the current hardship in the country.
Mimiko said the President inherited a near-collapsed economy from his predecessors, likening Tinubu ’s emergence to the final leg of a relay race where earlier runners had already lost the contest.
According to him, Tinubu stepped into office at a time when Nigeria was already on the brink.
Speaking with reporters in Ondo, in Ondo West local government, Mimiko said Nigerians must interrogate the state of the nation before President Tinubu took over in 2023.
He said Tinubu inherited an economy that had virtually collapsed, where over 95 per cent of the nation’s earnings were used to service debt.
Mimiko said: “If a man digs you out of a 5,000-metre hole and gets you to where you can see sunlight, the honest question is not whether life is immediately perfect, but whether you would even still be standing without that intervention.”
He described Tinubu’s decision to remove fuel subsidy as the kind of courageous leadership previous administrations lacked, noting that no president since 1999 had taken such a politically risky decision.
He said, “President Tinubu chose to do the painful but necessary thing. All those who came before him knew subsidy was unsustainable, but lacked the courage to remove it. It was a do-or-die situation for the economy.”
The governorship candidate argued that while fuel price increases had worsened hardship, he said Nigerians should direct greater scrutiny toward governors over how they were utilising the expanded federal allocations.
According to him, “The percentage increase in what states now receive is multiple times the percentage increase in fuel prices. Nigerians should be asking their governors what they are doing with these resources. Why are these monies not visibly improving the lives of ordinary citizens?”
On Tinubu’s foreign exchange reforms, Mimiko said the unification of exchange rates had restored confidence in the economy and blocked opportunities for round-tripping and profiteering by privileged interests.
He maintained that the President’s reforms had begun laying a stronger fiscal foundation for long-term recovery.
Responding to criticisms that Tinubu was responsible for the weakening of opposition parties, he dismissed such claims as unfounded, arguing that defections into the ruling All Progressives Congress were driven by political calculations rather than coercion.
He said, “Is it the President’s fault that governors are decamping because they like what he is doing? Which governor can be threatened? Governors have immunity. There is no credible evidence that he is stifling opposition.”
Mimiko also defended Tinubu’s democratic credentials, recalling the President’s role in helping opposition figures reclaim what he described as stolen mandates during the legal battles that produced governors in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Edo States. He particularly credited Tinubu for supporting his brother’s struggle to reclaim the Ondo governorship mandate.
He said, “President Tinubu was one of those who stood firmly to ensure democracy survived at that time. He led from the front. Without people like him, some of those mandates may never have been recovered. People conveniently forget his sacrifices for democracy because he is now the President.”
Despite his support for Tinubu, Mimiko reiterated his loyalty to the Zenith Labour Party, insisting that political parties were merely service vehicles.
His words: “I remain a bona fide member of ZLP and I will remain there. But party affiliation should never stop anyone from supporting what is right. I supported Tinubu before he became President, I support him now, and based on what I have seen, I will support him again.”
In the power sector, Mimiko admitted that more progress was needed, describing Nigeria’s electricity challenges as a longstanding structural crisis. He expressed cautious optimism over recent appointments in the sector but stressed that power remained critical to national development.
He was, however, emphatic in his assessment of Tinubu’s performance in healthcare, describing it as one of the administration’s strongest areas.
He said: “In the health sector, he has done excellently. More than 60,000 health workers have been trained, primary healthcare funding has improved significantly, and maternal mortality has dropped sharply. Those are sensitive indicators of a health system that is beginning to work.”
Speaking on the affairs of the state, Mimiko said Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa can deliver more tangible development for the people of Ondo State, arguing that the increased federal allocations accruing to states since the removal of fuel subsidy ought to have translated into greater progress in healthcare, education, and social services.
Mimiko said while the current administration had the benefit of significantly improved revenues, the state was yet to replicate the developmental strides recorded under the Mimiko administration.
His words: “States that were receiving less than N10 billion monthly are now getting close to N40 billion in some cases. With that kind of revenue increase, citizens should be seeing measurable improvement in their lives. Ondo has not yet matched the trajectory we witnessed under the Mimiko years, especially in health, education, and social intervention programmes.”
He, however, commended Aiyedatiwa’s push for the proposed seaport and bitumen development initiatives, describing them as bold long-term projects that should be given time to mature. “It is too early to completely judge this administration, but certainly, things could have been done much better.
