Dr Abbas Mimiko was the candidate of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the last governorship election in Ondo State. In this interview with BABATOPE OKEOWO, he speaks on President Bola Tinubu’s administration and why he deserves a second term as well as recent developments in the polity
Why are you supporting the reelection of President Bola Tinubu despite the outcry in the country over the state of the nation?
When we’re talking about President Tinubu, his leadership style and his presidency, we will be doing a lot of disservice to ourselves and to our nation as a whole if we don’t look at the picture holistically. It is easy to say he removed fuel subsidy and food became more expensive.
Let’s say you’re running a relay race and you are Usain Bolt, the most accomplished sprinter the world has known in recent times and the first leg, second leg and third leg runners have already destroyed the race for you. If you were meant to come first and you managed a third, people will say you didn’t win the race. The President took over an economy that had virtually collapsed. People don’t tend to remember that. Someone is saying are you better off today than you were three years ago?
The better question to ask is: If a man as better as Tinubu did not take over the helms of affairs of Nigeria, Nigeria probably would not be existing economically. All parameters showed that our economy was going totally bankrupt. So, which president, since the democratic era of Olusegun Obasanjo to date, had the courage to remove that fuel subsidy? We were using over 95 per cent of our entire earning to service debt, not to pay debt but President Tinubu came on board and said ‘subsidy is over.’
All the presidents before him, both those that had military background, Obasanjo didn’t have the courage to do it. President Umaru Yar’adua didn’t stay long, so we don’t know, but Goodluck Jonathan didn’t have the courage to do it. Also, the military strongman that became civilian president, Muhammadu Buhari, didn’t have the courage to do it.
Do you think Tinubu did well with the subsidy removal?
President Tinubu said it is either we bury our heads in the sand like ostriches and let the economy go to hell or we do the painful thing that is necessary to get out of this circle of destruction.
And that’s exactly what he did. He wasn’t looking towards people that would clap for him. He was trying to make the fiscal parameters viable for Nigeria. That’s exactly what he’s achieved.
People tend to talk about the fact that he removed fuel subsidy; why don’t people remember that before he came into power, states that were receiving less than N10 billion are now receiving about N40 billion. So, fuel subsidy was removed but the percentage increase in the money that has accrued to the states is multiple times that percentage of fuel increase.
This is not to take anything away from the suffering of Nigerians. He has tripled states’ revenue all over the country. Why are people not asking their governors? Why are these monies not being applied to improve the lives of the ordinary person? So, I will support a president who shows courage and can perform under fire.
But the same Tinubu put some people together to protest against President Jonathan when he did the same thing… Did Jonathan remove subsidy?
He said he was about to remove it. The mark of leadership is to see the vision and be courageous to pursue it. I won’t say I’m the leader of a group and I see that this is El Dorado and we’re heading there and I say because people are criticising me I won’t do the right thing. That doesn’t stand up in the face of reality. The truth is that for many years they were all scared of the idea of removing subsidy because they think that the whole system will erupt in violence and riot.
I don’t like the idea that PDP is virtually dead. I don’t like the idea that ADC is wobbling but why do you want to blame the President for that
Personally, I’m not a fan of most of the governors in Nigeria because if only a few of them have spent the revenue given to them well, invest in agriculture, the percentage of increase in the inflation rate is not anything near the amount of revenue that has accrued to them. If, for example, Tinubu did not go ahead and remove fuel subsidy, do you know what the American-Iran war would have done to Nigeria?
We would be out of existence by now. Go to the United States; from $1, they’re now buying fuel for $6 per litre. So, you can imagine if we were still in the era of importing fuel, we’ll be selling fuel for N5,000 per litre. The economy would have collapsed on our heads. So, let us give him time because the economy has been destroyed over the years.
Tinubu brought Buhari the first time and the second time despite the fact that he knew that things were getting worse. Do you see his place in politics than the nation’s wealth?
That question always amuses me. Tinubu brought Buhari, one person does not bring a president. You can say he was part of the coalition that produced the president. At the time Tinubu was supporting Buhari; the average youth in Nigeria was supporting Buhari because they saw him as a man who is truthful, who is upright, the one who is going to be the patron of the downtrodden.
So, how would he have known that Buhari is not good? I think Buhari meant well but he didn’t have the kind of presence and dominance that Tinubu has over his administration. We were servicing debt with 97 per cent of all earnings.
So, I don’t think Tinubu was wrong in saying it was a turn of the North to produce the president. And the man that had the stature to save Nigeria from where we’re heading to the abyss was President Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo. It was a solid combination, but if the government became a runaway car and everything went downhill, I don’t think the blame is on Tinubu. I don’t personally share that opinion.
Did you share the view that opposition in Nigeria is in disarray?
For any democracy to survive, opposition has to be robust and participatory. Is it the president’s fault that he’s doing so well that governors are decamping to join his party? People tend to think it’s because he’s a politician, he’s threatening people. Can you threaten a governor? They have immunity.
So, if a governor decides that I like what this man is doing, I want to be part of that winning team, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Would you prefer a president that was failing, so all the governors and the senators would be fleeing from him? Any politician anywhere in the world, even the American president would prefer that he has virtually 45 out of the 50 governors of America in his party, if he could have his way.
The question is, why do you accuse Tinubu of stifling opposition? What specifically has he done to justify that claim that people make? If there is one person in this generation that has fought for democracy, President Tinubu is number one, and I have no apology to offer anybody for saying that, and I will give my reasons.
Why did you say so?
Most of us were here in 2007, when my brother, former Governor Olusegun Mimiko, contested and won an election, when Kayode Fayemi won an election in Ekiti, when Rauf Aregbesola won an election in Osun State, when Adams Oshiomhole won in Edo. What happened? President Obasanjo declared that it was a do-or-die affair for his party, and they ran over us here like trains running over ants, and they took those mandates.
When some of them talk about apostles of democracy now, I laugh. I know what I’m saying because I was personally involved in that of Ondo State as one of the coordinators of my brother’s struggle to reclaim his mandate. President Tinubu, then a former governor of Lagos State led from the front to ensure that democracy did not die at that time.
You might have been hearing about the fact that he brought a forensic expert from Scotland Yard, who came to do forensic to discover that one person was thumb-printing for a thousand people. He was the one that engineered all of that. He was the one that stood as a leader to all those people, and they all reclaimed their mandates. Aregbesola became governor; Fayemi became governor, Oshiomhole became governor, Mimiko became governor. If I don’t know any other one, I know the one here. Even our lives were not safe at that time.
There was a day I was with Mimiko, when Tinubu, called. He said I don’t think you are safe. Do you have an Armoured car? He said no. He said I will send one to you today and make sure you don’t go out without riding it because of the information reaching me. So, when they say democracy, he went out of his way to ensure that all those mandates were recovered. Perhaps if that trajectory of PDP then had continued, there might not have even been the so-called democracy we are seeing now.
Go back a little, during the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) era, I was in the United States then but in terms of coordination, in terms of funding, in terms of activity, in terms of laying his life on the line, Tinubu was in the forefront of struggle for democracy. How convenient is it to forget now that because he is the president and because his party is getting larger and the opposition is getting weaker. I don’t like the idea that PDP is virtually dead. I don’t like the idea that ADC is wobbling but why do you want to blame the President for that.
That he’s hounding them; he’s putting them in jail. Hounding what because you’re contesting or running for president or running for an office. Are you saying that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) doesn’t have the right to say come and account for your stewardship? So, I think it’s being sentimental to say that President Tinubu is killing opposition.
President Tinubu is killing opposition. Are you not worried that Nigeria is drifting to a one-party state?
I don’t! I am a democrat, but I can tell you, even just for the sake of argument, not that I’m making my own position. China is a one-party state and they are much more diverse.
They are the biggest, virtually the biggest economy in the world today. But we have adopted the multi-party presidential system. So, we have to live within the rules and regulations of that. ADC is a viable opposition. Who says they are not talking? Peter Obi is talking every day. Atiku Abubakar is talking every day.
Rabiu Kwankwaso is talking. I actually think the President has been very tolerant in terms of what people are saying. Nigeria is too complex to turn to a one-party state.
You heard about the Ibadan meeting where some people gathered to present a common front for presidency. You heard that Kwankwanso, Obi and Atiku want to run. These are very powerful and well-established individuals. So, I don’t think it’s right to say that the opposition is dying.
Will it be right to say you are still in the position?
I’m in Zenith Labour Party. I have been in Zenith Labour Party for years. I will remain in Zenith Labour Party because I don’t look at partie the way many people look at the idea of parties. Parties are just a vehicle.
That’s why it’s easy for me to support President Tinubu despite the fact that he’s in the APC. That’s why it’s easy for me to praise anyone, whether within my party or outside of my party, which I think, is delivering dividends of democracy to the people. So, the fact that I’m in Zenith Labour Party does not in any way encumber me from supporting President Tinubu. I had supported him before he became president.
Do you think the President has done enough in the power sector and the health sector, particularly considering the brain drain in the health sector presently?
I like to go back memory lane when we are talking about these things. You know what has happened to the attempts at revamping power in Nigeria. You know about Mambila. A man has taken over a completely broken infrastructure. He has taken some steps recently, appointing a Czar that will man the power sector, a new minister, this and that. Let us hope those things work because the power sector is very poor in terms of performance to date, and we need power for development.
There’s no question about it. It is a problem that ought to have been worked upon for more than 20, 30 years. A single state in South Africa is generating more light than the whole of Nigeria. We are competing as economist. I don’t think enough achievements have been made in the power sector but I know he’s working at it and I like the recent appointments he made in the power sector. Let’s hope those ones will work. In terms of the health sector, I can tell you without equivocation that he has done excellently.
More than 60,000 health workers have been trained under President Tinubu. Several hospitals, including medical universities, have been established in many places under him. Primary health care has not had the kind of funding it is having under him for a long time. Maternal mortality rate has dropped by 50 per cent, and that is a very sensitive index, when you want to know how the health system is operating.
The national bureau of statistics figure gave 50 per cent reduction in maternal mortality rate in three years and he has increased the budget allocation to health. The idea of brain drain in the health sector; we have to put it in perspective. Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other health workers are international commodities.
They are traded in dollars, if I may use that language, because everybody is looking for doctors and Nigerian doctors are damn good. We are the best in the world in terms of our training. In my programme, it is not to self-aggrandize, but just as an example, in my programme, I was scoring 99 percent in national exam when I was doing my specialist training.
So, if you are in America, South Africa or Japan, you’re looking for readymade because it’s not easy to train health practitioners. It takes a lot. So, they are looking for the easy way, which is to poach. So, if a doctor in Nigeria is earning N500,000 Naira, that same doctor can earn $10,000 elsewhere. It’s a free society, so they will migrate.
As a party leader, how is the Zenith Labour Party fairing in Ondo State?
We are alive, vibrant and present in all the wards and 18 local government areas in Ondo State. But we have gone a little quiet. I didn’t say silent. That’s a matter of strategy. During the last election, we discovered that when we spoke to people, they talked highly about our manifesto. We wish we were the party that produced governor as life would be more abundant for us. People were endeared to what we were telling them.
Our research showed us something that was very alarming and very painful. You will see people collecting N5,000 on election day and they’re crying. We asked: You just sold four years of your life; why are you crying? One of them said: I know that I sold it, they’re not going to do anything for me. But how can my single vote change anything? They know the results they will announce anyway.
I found that out in all the 18 local governments, so I told my people – the executives of my party – that instead of running around campaigning, what we need is to educate the almost six million people of Ondo State, that every vote counts, that their lives matters that their ballot paper is their power, and that if they decide to use it well, they can change the trajectory of non-performance that has bedeviled the system for a long time. If they keep selling votes for N5,000, N10,000, N20,000, it means we will never get out of where we are.
What we are concentrating on now is educating people about the importance of democracy, so vote and make your vote count. And I think we are doing a good job at that. We have no money to distribute to people.
Are you not afraid that INEC may deregister ZLP? Why would they deregister us?
Activity is a very subjective terminology. I can tell you that virtually every month, my national chairman is on national television discussing issues that are facing Nigeria. He is on the forefront of the democracy fight.
Even when they wanted to truncate the victory of President Tinubu in Ondo, my chairman stood up. So, I don’t see any reason to deregister us. We are a robust party, we have a few people that are elected, we are not in the league of possible deregistration. Let me make this point.
You can’t kill an idea. If you say today that you have deregistered us and we go to ‘V Party,’ we are still the ones there. The ideology, the plan, the thinking are still there to work on. So, I don’t think we face that kind of scenario because we are alive and well, and we continue to push for Nigeria to get better.
Do you have aspirants for the 2027 elections?
We have aspirants across board. There is no governorship election in Ondo State but for House of Assembly election, there are a lot of people who are collecting nomination forms.
