I’ll release seven keys of prosperity in Ondo – ZLP candidate, Mimiko

Dr Abass Mimiko, younger brother of a former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, is contesting the November 16 governorship election in the state under the platform of the Zenith Labour Party. He speaks about the forthcoming poll and other political issues concerning the state and the country in this interview with PETER DADA

What informed your coming back to Nigeria after being employed in the US?

Before I left Nigeria, I already told myself that I had a certain number of years that I would spend in the United States. I didn’t want to go and grow in another man’s land. By the time I was trained as a psychiatrist, there were probably no more than 100 active psychiatrists in Nigeria. So, I didn’t really want a scenario where you got trained and your people were in need, you are feeding a system that is already saturated. I was doing very well in the US but I believe that we all need to give something back to Nigeria. I went to medical school for virtually free. You can imagine in the US the least they would have in debt by the time they finish medical school would be about $200,000 or more. So, as a proud citizen of Nigeria, I wanted to give something back. That was the major incentive that brought me back. The other incentive was that my brother was running for governorship in Ondo State then. The calibre of person I know him to be, I wanted to come back and contribute my quota to his success as a governor.

Not much is known is about you…

(Cuts in) I’m from Ondo Kingdom, a medical doctor by profession, while by specialty I’m a psychiatrist. I’m also a farmer and businessman. I was born in Ondo State and went to my primary school at St. Paul’s RCM School in Ondo and my secondary education at St. Joseph’s College. My university education was at the University of Lagos College of Medicine. I did some general practice in Nigeria before I went to the United States to do my specialist training in general psychiatry. I did a specialty course in what we call psychosomatic medicine, consultation-liaison psychiatry. I’m certified in both. Apart from that, I have a lot of other certifications in the field of psychiatry. While in the US, I taught at Columbia University at Harlem Hospital as an assistant professor. Back in Nigeria, I do private practice psychiatry part-time. I’m a farmer and I also do some other businesses by the side.

You never mentioned being a politician but you want to contest for a political office now…

I don’t see myself as a politician. I’ve always been on the sidelines. I’ve never held public office in Nigeria or anywhere. In my practice, of course, in the US, I headed CPEP (Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programme), which catered to the upper Manhattan area at that time with virtually about 300 doctors using my centre as a referral point. I was heading that centre. But in terms of political public office, I’ve never held any.

Experience matters in everything in life, how do you hope to survive the task ahead?

But when you’re talking about experience, it’s composed of your preparedness in terms of education. I think I’m eminently well-educated to govern Ondo State. Two, experience in terms of knowledge of what you want to do. I have a compendium of knowledge of Ondo State — the people, the geography, the economy, the social life, their pains, and their aspirations. I grew up here (Ondo). Most of my life I’ve lived here. So, I understand precisely what the challenges are and what the probable solutions are. When I was at Columbia University at Harlem Hospital, I was the deputy training director for psychiatry. We took our centre from one that wasn’t reckoned with to one that was competing with the results of Harvard University, with UCLA at a city hospital. As chief of psychiatric emergency programme at Harlem, we were referenced as some of the best around then. While in Nigeria, in my private practice, I see patients, so I get to meet with the people. In my agricultural business, I’m an employer of labour. I’ve had hundreds of people work for me at different points in time. We produce the best ‘garri’ in Nigeria. So, when you’re talking of experience, to govern properly, you need two things, a good head and a good heart. A good head is to have the requisite intellectual capacity. You don’t need to have experience as an administrator in a particular area to administer that area well. That’s why you see, for example, banks. If they want to elect a chairman, they don’t necessarily look for a banker. They’re looking for some strong administrative qualities from an individual, and the same here. Though I never worked for Ondo State or worked in Ondo State I have worked in Lagos State, I worked in Ogun State as a doctor. Also, my brother was a governor of this state and I was able to understudy the processes for eight good years, I think I’m eminently qualified to run the state.

You want to run the state by contesting against two major political parties and other smaller parties. How do you hope to survive this?

That’s what they say until it hits them hard. Zenith Labour Party, even by our name, Zenith, is the peak. We are the party to beat in Ondo State, by the way. If you conduct a poll today, you’ll get a clear picture of what I’m saying. APC in Ondo State has nothing to offer except hunger, homelessness, penury, pain, taking free maternity care away from women, jacking school fees up to the level where the children of the common man can no longer attend school. Students are dropping out of universities and colleges of education and polytechnics. That’s what they are offering, selling off cocoa plantations of our people to foreigners so that their Chinese businessmen can come and lord it over us in Ondo State and become our paymasters. They have nothing that resembles the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They’re expecting him to come and grow corn for them in Ondo State. The rains are here but Ondo State Government is doing nothing on agriculture. Yet, on the streets of Ondo State, in the markets, we are buying five tomatoes for N500. They’re waiting for the President to come grow tomatoes for them. They are waiting for the President to come and shuttle their children to school. All that the leadership of the federal, the Presidency needs to do is what they are doing. Look at Niger State. The largest land mass in the country is creating the biggest agricultural enterprise in the country as we speak. Ondo State is awash with minerals, with natural resources. All our governor does, all our own APC in Ondo State does is to spend money and gallivant around in long convoys doing nothing. So, they have nothing to sell to the people. The PDP, on the other hand, two sides of the same coin. They have no developmental agenda to present to the people. And we know them. We’ve seen them. But Zenit Labour Party is the face of the new Ondo State that is going to come. We’ve articulated for our people that we have seven keys of prosperity. One is Karije – food security for everybody. Two is  Karimu – portable water for every citizen. The third one is Karina – massive industrialisation, wealth creation, entrepreneurship that will take us to the next level in economic independence. Karika – educational opportunity for every citizen, be they are from poor homes or poor backgrounds or be they children of billionaires, we’re going to provide access to top-quality education for all and top-quality vocational trainings for our children that are not going to higher institutions.   Kanile – Lona, we are proposing, we have a plan, a clear and well-articulated plan to put 20,000 new homes in Ondo State based on a mortgage system. For civil servants, for workers, for market women, for people in the rural and urban areas, we are going to construct roads in every Local Government Area so that the rural areas can have access to the urban centres, and vice versa. Kanilera – that’s our health project. We’re going to bring back free maternal care. Children’s immunisation will be comprehensive. We’re going to bring back shuttle buses so that our children can no longer die on okada  on the way to school. We are going to bring back everything that the Olusegun Mimiko administration did in health that this current administration has destroyed. We are going to do much more to have health insurance for the able-bodied working class. We are going to have free basic health care for citizens above 70 years of age. We are going to have free medical care for children zero to six years and much more. The last of the seven keys of prosperity is Kalalafia – peace and security for our citizenry. You will never have development if you don’t have peace and security. We’re going to strengthen the orthodox federal agencies of security and others. But we’re also going to reinvigorate Amotekun, reorganise it to a very powerful, effective force to police our borders with a frontier force, to police our farmlands, which we are going to cultivate a minimum of 10,000 hectares per LGA. We’re going to police our neighbourhood, campuses, and markets with Amotekun. So, we’re going to have a comprehensive security apparatus for the state using drones, satellite technology, and modern gadgets so that kidnapping will go down to zero level in Ondo State. We are going to enforce the laws regarding kidnapping to the fullest.

What is your view on the issue of ‘see and buy’ that often characterises Nigerian elections?

‘See and buy’ is the bane of the Nigerian political system. That’s why we never get good leaders elected, because our leaders are not accountable to the people. They just come on Election Day, buy the votes and go away. For the next four years, they do nothing, save up money that is stolen, come back, and buy another tenure. We are going to put a stop to that in Ondo State because N20,000 on election day translates into no free maternal care, and pregnant women will die again. No free school shuttle bus, children on okada, their heads being smashed on concrete roads every day, beautiful children being amputated every day. That’s what you are trading off. So, we don’t know how they intend to implement this, but our people are not cowards. They are going to resist any attempt to come and steal their franchise on Election Day because they are tired of APC in Ondo State. They are tired of PDP and they want a new face and luckily we are the new face.

What is the position of your brother, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on your ambition because people believe you want to ride on his popularity to contest the election…

Everybody likes to ride on the shoulders of giants, I have a brother who was a governor and he did very well. If I have his shoulders to ride on, that’s a blessing to me. But I must emphasise that I am my own man. Yes, I supported him in his struggle into the palace of power but then, there are areas where we disagreed and where we agree and that’s given. Why? Because he is his own man, I am my own man. I have my own developmental agenda for Ondo State, we need to pursue it radically and progressively. He, on the other hand, and those who claimed he is going to dictate to me what to do and I’ll be his stooge, they have no idea how our family runs. He is a man of excellent ideas to borrow from, but let me just give you an instance to prove to you that we are our own man. During the last presidential election, we wanted to support the current President, he wanted to support some other candidate, that didn’t make us enemies and we campaigned for the President. I was a member of Tinubu’s campaign council and we did rigorous campaigning, publicly, privately and every front supported him; that didn’t create any friction between me and my brother. He is giant in terms of development, I’ll definitely borrow a lot of ideas from him but I don’t ask him what I’ll have for breakfast in the theatre of politics.

As a chieftain of the PDP, Dr Mimiko may be against you on Election Day. Have you met him to seek his support?

That makes it even more interesting. He is in PDP, we’re in Zenith Labour Party, we’re going for an election, when we get to the theatre of voting, we will see, because, again, I must emphasise, we are Zenith Labour Party, he’s not. He has the right to support the candidate of his party, he might support Agboola Ajayi, and some even speculate that he is the one behind Governor (Lucky) Aiyedatiwa. I understand all those meetings going on at nights but that’s not my problem. He has the freedom and freewill to support whichever candidate he wants. It’s interesting. I know many candidates want his support; they drive into his house at midnight. They don’t want people to know. You want to benefit from a man, yet you don’t want the leaders of your party to know. Why do they prefer to see Iroko (Mimiko’s nickname) in the shadows, why don’t they come out and say ‘Iroko, I admire him, I appreciate him.’ When you want to benefit from a man, you want to eat your cake and have it. I’m proud to be a follower of Bola Tinubu, but it doesn’t mean I agree with all his policies. As a leader, I see his efforts to change Nigeria for the better. I don’t really think Iroko, being a PDP man, changes anything. We’re winning the election and we are going to celebrate the victory.

How will you feel if your brother campaigns against you as you aren’t members of the same party?

If my brother gets to the podium  and raises Aiyedatiwa’s hand, saying, ‘this is my beloved son, vote for him, he is the one to bring back all the goodies I did for you that got taken away by the APC government’ and I get onto the podium and I say, ‘oh! People of Ondo State, I’ll bring mother and child back, I’ll bring free shuttle buses back, I’ll bring neighbourhood market back, I’ll bring mega schools back,’ because when my brother was conceptualising all these lofty ideas and projects, I was there with him, we planned it together. When he was implementing, I was his chief cheer leader and adviser in the shadows. Who do you think the people of Ondo State will believe, me or Aiyedatiwa? The answer is for you.

Most of the political parties participating in the forthcoming governorship election are picking their candidates from the southern senatorial district, you are from the central senatorial district. Don’t you think this will work against you?

Even if it’s coming to central, why Ondo, why Mimiko family? Usually, when the sea is calm, anybody can pretend to be a sailor, because the sea is calm, everything is on auto pilot, but when there’s turbulence on the high sea, you want a capable captain to pilot your ship. Ondo State is in great turbulence, you need people who are capable. Governor Aiyedatiwa and the former Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, have no clue about governance. One was deputy governor for four years, what did he bring to the table of development, except we kept going backward. Aiyedatiwa was deputy governor for three years, what did he also bring? Thank President Tinubu, regarding the electricity that is coming to Ondo South now, it’s not the state government that did it. It’s NDDC, it’s the President that insisted that these people have been in darkness for over 15 years, you must give them light and the process is on. So, what have Aiyedatiwa and Agboola Ajayi done for the people of the South to deserve their votes, except the primitive concept that it’s my region’s turn?  No, we say it’s the turn of a person who will develop Ondo State, that can bring life back to Ondo State, that can put smiles on the people’s faces again, that can make delivery free for our women, even if they have to undergo Caesarean Session, that can make tuition drop for our students and our children can go to school and aspire in life. So, we are not bothered about the people saying it’s the South’s turn and they are not even doing the maths. The South has 13 candidates, we’re the only strong candidate from the Central, so what are they talking about? We are going to defeat them, suffering is great in the South, yet they are the most naturally endowed across board. Mark my words, I’m not going to be a governor that is going to use the wealth of Ilaje to favour Akoko, to the detriment of the children of Ilaje or the resources of Ese-Odo to favour Ondo town when the people of Ese-Odo are suffering. In the South, they have leaders that have no clue as per how to harness development. The current governor is going to spend one year in office, it’s raining season, there’s no food, what is he planting? Nothing.  Our people should look for a capable and an excellent leader. In the South, they have the largest bitumen deposit in the world, they have cynical sand that does glass, solar panels, they have natural deep sea that can support a seaport but they are not doing anything about it. They are not trying to bring international business to the place. All they know how to do is sell our lands to China. Under Aiyedatiwa, they bulldozed virtually the whole of Odigbo Local Government Area, it’s as bad as you see the son of a cocoa merchant being hired by the Chinese to bulldoze his father’s farm, they give him thick seeds to plant, as a slave to the Chinese. Is that what you call development, is that what you call lobbying for the South. Where are the lovers of the South, because we need to reverse all these shenanigans that is impoverishing our people and bring true development to the South. The seaport will come alive, free trade will become an international market, the bitumen deposit will start to produce, using our license, we will collaborate with the Federal Government to bring our resources up in the oil and gas sector, we will bring back Oluwa Glass Company to produce glass for all the auto industries in Nigeria, we will bring the cynical sand into manufacturing solar panels, we will become the solar panel manufacturing capital of West Africa and many more. We will make Ese-Odo the biggest fishing community in West Africa. We know how they sell prawns, crabs and all of that in the market, we can make millions of dollars from that in Ese-Odo. So, in the whole South, Irele has bitumen, crude oil, gold, then, why are we suffering? So, let them sell these ideas, they are from the South, they must be elected by the people, let them tell their stories to the marines. Ondo State is wise now, we’re looking for a capable leader, in Zenith Labour Party, we will provide that leadership by the grace of God.