By Kennedy Ikantu Peretei
Last week, the media space was awash with reports of political associates of former Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko defecting to All Progressives Congress (APC). I would not have dignified their defection with a response, but for misleading media reportage such as “Tsunami Hits Ondo PDP”, “Ondo PDP Now Dead”, “Ondo PDP Sinks” and many more screaming headlines which did not reflect the reality on the ground.
Anybody who has diligently followed Ondo State politics since 2007 will appreciate that, there is nothing to all the hype about the celebrated defections.
As much as possible, l will resist the temptation to mention names out of courtesy, and because Dr Olusegun Mimiko has not made any public declaration of his being a member of APC.
Unfortunately, those defecting used his name as cover, which has attracted the most scathing attacks and uncomplimentary remarks on the personality of Mimiko at least in the social media. I just wonder, why they did not use their own names, since they claimed to be big names, instead of bringing the former Governor into this controversy.
To start with, it is important to take an historical perspective about the unfolding drama before l dissect the dynamics of the 16th November, 2024 Gubernatorial election which is the underlying reason for the defection.
The defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that metamorphosed to APC in 2014 was an inconsequential political party in Ondo State. To underscore this, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN of blessed memory who was the candidate of the party in 2012 Governorship election came third. Dr Olusegun Mimiko’s Labour Party (LP) scored 260,199 votes (41.65%) to secure a second term, Chief Olusola Oke polled 155,961(24.97%) votes for the PDP as Akeredolu hugged the third position for ACN with 143,523 votes (22.97%). As a matter of fact, Akeredolu had to abandon his petition against Mimiko’s victory at the Supreme Court because the ACN that sponsored him for that election had become extinct in the course of the litigation. This is the background of APC in Ondo State ( Number 3).
In the 2011 General elections, the ACN had no presence in the 26 Member Ondo State House of Assembly. The PDP had only one, while LP had 25 members.
However, in 2014 Dr Olusegun Mimiko decided to join the PDP with all his Commissioners, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, two Senators, eight House of Representatives members, 25 Ondo State House of Assembly members and all the political appointees. The entire government apparatus was collapsed into the PDP. Former President Goodluck Jonathan believed that, with the LP joining the PDP in the State, the APC stood no chance in the 2015 General Election ( especially Presidential, which was his interest).
But here are the results of the 2015 Presidential Election: The PDP polled 251,368 votes (44.80%) and APC polled 299,889 votes (53.45%)
Things did not get better for the PDP in the 2016 Governorship election. The PDP won in only two of the eighteen Local Governments, that was how a minority party inherited the reins of power by default. I do not intend to go into the intrigues of how the PDP lost that election. That is a story for another day.
Fast forward to 2019. Somehow, by this time, Dr Olusegun Mimiko had exited the PDP. His new party was Zenith Labour Party ( ZLP). In the 2019 General Election, the PDP roared back to reckoning even in spite of a sitting APC Governor in Alagbaka Government House and an APC President Muhammadu Buhari who sought a second term. APC polled 241,769 votes while PDP’s Abubakar Atiku polled 275,901 votes. Needless to mention that, PDP won two of the three Senatorial seats and 3 House of Representatives seats, lost the fourth with less than 200 votes.
I decided to go to this length to underscore the fact that, the 29 or so defectors in terms of number, influence and name are nothing compared to the names and the Exodus of Mimiko’s supporters that populated the PDP in 2014. A party that controlled both the State and Federal Governments at the time. Therefore, those rolling out the drums should not do so yet.
I read the Press Statement credited to the defectors and l honestly could not make any sense out of it. Can any resident of Ondo State in good conscience point to one positive thing the APC government has done in nearly 8 years to make life more meaningful for the people?
Students of tertiary institutions in the State are dropping out of school, because their parents can longer pay fees. Insecurity has reached such an intolerable level that, women protested half naked in Aku-Akoko, last week. Hundreds of those loved by their families have died because family members could not afford medical bills. These trademarks of the APC government attracted them to the government and party?
Funny enough, some APC members have accused Hon Lucky Aiyedatiwa of “procuring political prostitutes” while majority of them are still hungry and angry. That the APC does not need the defectors to win. There are also others who said, the APC has just contacted “Ebola” it cannot survive. That means, the seeds of hostility in the APC are already germinating.
Let me say at this juncture that, the political class is a negligible fraction of the voting public. The electorates who had been pauperised and taken for granted over the years are wiser now. For a place like Ondo State with very enlightened minds, politicians can defect to wherever they want. When the election comes, the people will have to choose between their oppressors and those who wish to bring liberation. More importantly, while some of these defectors have never contested any elections before, others are serial election losers. So, how can they help an Aiyedatiwa to win in November? This is the flip side of the celebration about the defections.
Peretei is the former State Publicity Secretary of PDP in Ondo State
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