15th October, 2012
Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, highlights the successes recorded by his administration within three years and speaks on political developments in the state towards his re-election bid. He met with TheNEWS’ team of ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, TOKUNBO OLAJIDE and IDOWU OGUNLEYE
What major achievements would you want to showcase to Ondo State people as you seek re-election?
Let’s take education for example. We have intervened to address the issue of fallen standard of education, accessibility and democratisation of quality education, especially for the downtrodden. These are everyday concerns which we have addressed through our Quality Education Assurance Agency. We have recreated the old time-honoured Inspectorate Division and the inspection and education measurement tools. We have started creating new-generation infrastructure, which we call Mega Schools. We have put together an incentivisation package for the teaching staff. Apart from the relativity allowance which we have paid, we have also paid a 27.5 per cent increment to teachers. We are, perhaps, the only state paying relativity and 27.5 per cent. We are incentivising them; we are training and re-training them. We have exposed some of them to external (offshore) training. And for all of these, we have started having some empirical results. Examples are the JETS Competition, international competitions and science education competitions. We’ve come out tops in many of these competitions. The icing on the cake is the last West African School Certificate Examinations. An Ondo State student came first in the whole of Nigeria and West Africa.
And there is empirical evidence that our investment in education has started showing. An example is our Mega Schools, which would serve the interest, especially, of those who cannot afford private education. Private sector elites are even already falling over one another to have a place in the Mega Schools. This is an evidence that we can showcase to the people.
In the Health sector, we have proved that it is possible to democratise access to free, qualitative healthcare, especially to the most vulnerable groups in the society – pregnant women and infants. We have targeted these segments and the result has been such that has been recognised even beyond the shores of Nigeria as a template. We are creating an emergency medical system that would be like no other on the continent of Africa.
What about urban renewal?
In urban renewal, we promised our people that Akure would be a modern city, that we would embark on a massive urban renewal programme starting with Akure, the capital. It’s a 30-year programme that we set up to renew our cities. I can hold up Akure and say, ‘Look at what we’ve done to Akure in three years.’ We have renewed our cities, and in doing that, we have also taken into consideration the socio-democratic platform – the mantra of our party. We don’t just destroy shanties and send people to the streets and deepen poverty. We have taken people off the streets, but we have taken them into a more commercially conducive world-class environment, especially the downtrodden. We have created this new environment. We are growing and renewing our inner cities and making life more meaningful for the people there. We can hold this up. And as we are doing in Akure, we are replicating same in other major urban centres in Ondo State.
Also, because we are very gender-sensitive, we can put our hand on everything that has to do with women development. The modern markets we are building, we are not just relocating the traders to the modern environment; we are making shops affordable and extending micro-credits to them to be able to improve on their commercial capabilities. We can hold it up in this and other sectors like Housing.
Since the Ajasin era, there has not been a new housing estate in this state, but we are facilitating the creation of three new housing states. All of them will be commissioned soon. These are things we can show the people to prove that we care for them. And they will believe me if I say I want to up the ante. I want to leverage a new industrial policy to create more jobs. I can tell them that in these three years, we have created countless jobs, leveraging our relative advantage in agriculture. We have built three agro-business cities. We have made farming very attractive to our children and we have embarked on a well-positioned industrial development trajectory – agro-based, with multiplier effects. At the tomato plant in Arigidi-Akoko, apart from those that will be engaged directly, we also have an out-growers scheme that will get more than 1,000 people engaged.
Ten, 20 years down the line, there’s nothing preventing Ondo State from looking like any other place in the world. In every sector that we have made promises, to a large extent, God has helped us.
With the coming governorship election and with many candidates gunning for your seat, are you, as the incumbent, losing any sleep?
I only lose sleep when I’m working for the people. It is legitimate for people to eye my seat. It’s expected and it’s part of the beauty of democracy. Some people love the sound of sirens, and whatever. But what I can tell you is that we are working for the people, and they know this. We have a very enlightened population that is politically conscious. Come election, our work will speak for us. So, I don’t lose sleep over people wanting to contest election. But I lose sleep when I think about what we still have to do to battle poverty in this land.
What is your current relationship with the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, especially given your history with some its leaders?
The disagreement we have is that the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, said I should leave the Labour Party and join ACN, and I have insisted that there is no reason I should leave the Labour Party. I have been very fortunate; I have changed party twice. And yet I’ve not lost the people.When I was leaving the PDP, it was clear to everybody that I had to leave and look for another platform. I have no reason now to leave Labour Party for ACN. That is the point of disagreement. And I have always pointed out that if there are areas where we share same values, we can collaborate.
Excerpts from Gov. Mimiko’s interview, first published in TheNEWS, 21 May 2012 edition