Governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, Dr. Abass Mimiko, on Thursday, declared that he did not need the endorsement of his immediate elder brother, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to become the next governor of the state.
Mimiko also stated that the state is not ripe for the rotation governorship, noting that his brother’s administration as governor will be a child’s play compared to the administration he would lead should he win the November 16th governorship election.
Speaking at the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Akure, the state capital, Mimiko disclosed “I don’t want him to give me any endorsement. What I need is the people, the endorsement of the masses, and the people of Ondo State. I won’t vote for somebody whose brother is raising his hand saying ‘I became governor, come and vote for my brother!’ No!”
The ZLP candidate who further said he would personally vote and campaign against such a person, stressed that, “I want to be governor so that I can showcase the plans I have. Iroko’s administration will be child’s play with what we have on the ground for Ondo.”
According to him, “If the brother is capable, he should present his credentials so that we can assess him as an individual. His brother has run an administration, we can then add one extra mark, because the brother did well, believing that perhaps he will do well too.
“So, I don’t want to be referenced. You can reference me as part of the success of the ‘Iroko’ phenomenon because we planned many of those good programmes together, but I can’t claim those programmes. I was not the governor, I want to be governor so that I can showcase the plans I have. Iroko’s administration will be a child play with what we have on the ground for Ondo.”
Speaking in the rotation of the governorship seat between the three senatorial districts of the state, Mimiko insisted that the state must have a leader who can use “what we have to get what we want.”
“If everything was running smoothly, it would be an embarrassment. I felt embarrassed the first time I said, I wanted to run for governor.
“I said, what would people in Ondo State think about this? Is it a family affair? But when we took a younger sister, related to me, to the Mother And Child Hospital to deliver, she had complications, but we thank God she survived, and the baby survived.
“On day three, we went to discharge her. We were in the car, I was celebrating, and I was dancing in my seat with the baby. The mother of the baby was shedding tears. After persuasion, she confided in me that four women lost their lives at the Mother And Child Hospital within the three days she spent there.
“When I weigh my embarrassment of being the brother of a former governor wanting to be a governor, versus the pain and the suffering of the people, I think my embarrassment is nothing.
“So, what I’m saying in essence is that we need quality people. First and foremost, let this system run efficiently. Then if we like, we can rotate the law. They will say it’s not constitutional. Yes, we can put it into law. But we can have a proper agreement within the state that from now on, it’s no more a gentleman’s agreement.”