Reading through Mr. Dele Momodu’s piece in Thisday of
October 4, 2014, one couldn’t but come away with the
impression of the author as a pathetic figure manifesting all
tendencies of arrested development and groping in the dark for
some relevance while pretending to be commenting on an
issue on which he neither has a good grasp nor clarity. He
demonstrated arrant lack of purchase of the issues involved
and ended up doing a pedestrian expose of an otherwise
complex subject.
What is unique about Dr. Mimiko’s recent political move is
that he laid out the philosophical underpinning and the
practical dimensions of his action, so clearly, in the speech he
read while declaring for the PDP in Abuja. It is one speech
that any serious person who aspired to undertake an analysis
of his decision should have read. But it is evident from his
write-up that Mr. Momodu did not read this speech.
It is also significant that present at the event where Dr.
Mimiko announced his return to PDP were virtually all political
office holders with whom he was in the LP in Ondo State.
This
is not only indicative of a high level of cohesion in Mimiko’s
political architecture, but also the popularity of his decision,
at least among members of the LP in the State.
For those who care to look closely, it is obvious that
Mimiko’s decision to return to PDP, a party under which,
according to him, he had the privilege of being SSG and later
Minister, is a well-thought one. The arguments are well laid
out in the very robust presentation he made at that occasion.
In that speech, the man provided what you could call the
philosophical basis of his decision to move over to the PDP,
which arguments can be summarised in this manner: first,
that having worked on the possibility of throwing up LP as a
third force in the current political space, he had come to the
conclusion that it is a very expensive enterprise; and at any
event one that has no historical justification as the trend in
Nigerian politics had always been in the direction of a two-
party dominant system. For him, this is a system that better
serves the cause of democracy in Nigeria
The truth is that when in 2007, it became imperative for Dr.
Mimiko to leave the PDP as the powers that be in that
organization then could not allow internal democracy to take
place, he decided on LP. This was in 2007, a time when the
Party was practically not in existence at all in Ondo State. It
is a testimonial to Dr. Mimiko’s political sagacity and strong
communion with the grassroots that in four quick months, he
built the party into a winning machine in Ondo State. Thus,
apart from winning the 2007 gubernatorial election, Dr.
Mimiko as Governor led the LP in the State into no less than
four bye-elections at different times, all of which it won. In
the October 20, 2012 second term election, he not only won,
he also beat APC, Momodu’s preferred party, to a third
position. Before then, Mimiko had made the LP brand so
popular and compelling that a character like Momodu who
was hallucinating about wanting to be President of Nigeria
found it irresistible. Even so, all of these did not take away
Mimiko’s conviction, to which he gave expression in his
speech, that the way to go in Nigeria is still that of a two-
party system.
How
applicable then is Momodu’s claim that Governor Mimiko used
LP and abandoned it?
Again, Mimiko noted that while it was attractive to want to
remain in a small LP where he could continue to be king, he
would rather, in the interest of Nigeria, move into PDP and
help strengthen the move in the direction of a two-party
system in which he has always believed. Unfortunately,
Momodu had to turn John Milton upside down to make a
point that did not fit. But the argument is, how else would
you want to describe the action of someone who jettisoned
the opportunity of remaining the big fish in a small pool for
that of a small fish in an ocean that he thinks serves the
nation better, other than patriotic? But this was lost on a
Momodu who had a duty to do.
Secondly, Governor Mimiko said he had to leave the PDP in
2006 when it was evident that the party had lost its most
compelling element – opportunity for internal democracy - at
least as far as Ondo State was concerned. Now, the man
provided evidence-based argument to demonstrate that the
new leadership of the nation and the ruling party has shown
uncommon commitment to internal party democracy, clean
elections and sustenance of democracy these past few years.
Thirdly, Dr. Mimiko made reference to the new INEC timetable.
He argued that whereas it was possible for him and his LP to
work for the President in 2011 while at the same time
sustaining his LP platform because the presidential election
took place on a separate date, it is no longer a possibility
now. He indicated that because the Presidential and National
Assembly elections are going to hold same day in February
2015, it was going to be pretty difficult to manage. It would
involve getting his supporters to vote in one breadth for
Jonathan and in another for LP candidates vying for National
Assembly seats on the same day and in the same election.
And if helping to get Jonathan elected is the critical objective,
he argued, the only reasonable thing to do was to go to the
President’s party, so as to be able to effectively galvanize
support for him. How, in the circumstances, does one interpret
all of these to mean demonstration of lack of interest in the
political fortunes of people who worked with him in the LP on
the part of Dr. Mimiko? Evidently, this practical reality is too
complicated for a pretender to the throne of intellectualism to
understand. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to Momodu that the
entire LP structure in Ondo State, House of Assembly, National
Assembly, Executive Council, all are following Mimiko to PDP?
Ordinarily, that should indicate for a discerning mind that it
wasn’t just that these people, seasoned politicians all in their
own right, find sense in Mimiko’s argument, but that his
decision to return to PDP was preceded by wide consultation.
.
Fourthly, Dr Mimiko over the years had not made secret his
support for President Jonathan. He had argued variously that
perhaps more than any other president in recent times,
Jonathan has tried to deliver on his promise on development.
Now you can either agree or disagree with Dr. Mimiko. But it
is on record that most Nigerians as demonstrated in the 2011
election, agreed with this position. That was why they elected
Jonathan president in that year. And until they un-elect him, if
you will, that position remains valid, the vicious attacks of
those who have mistook propaganda for governance
notwithstanding
Now, let us take a look at what remains of Momodu’s piece.
He betrays his very plebeian mind when in spite of the very
profound issues raised by Mimiko what is of concern to him is
that the President and the National Chairman of PDP did not
personally receive the Ondo Governor. Or
more interesting still, that the Governor has by his choosing to
return to PDP lost the opportunity of becoming a Senator after
his second term tenure in two years time! This is in every
sense of it, a low-level analysis.
Momodu decries Mimiko’s decision to return to his party
because it would deny LP the opportunity of growing into a
big third force. But is this not a ridiculous claim to make by
somebody who himself when he was still riding the illusion of
a presidential run, found the Mimiko brand in the LP so
captivating that he joined the party? He left only when the
party made it clear that it did not believe in throwing up
presidential candidates for its sake, certainly not one like
Momodu who eventually went to run on the ticket of NCP but
could not even persuade his own wife, son and driver to vote
for him. Now, the clincher: Momodu’s criticism of the Iroko:
he ‘had the opportunity of helping Nigeria build a formidable
workers party but he preferred to use and dump his Party in
total disregard for history and posterity’. But this same
pontificating Momodu also had the opportunity to help grow
LP into the formidable third force that he desired. Rather than
do this, however, Momodu left the Party because it could not
be a part of his penchant for tomfoolery as represented by his
laughable presidential run in 2011. Is it not ridiculous for the
same man to now declare without any compunction, ‘I am
disappointed not because (Mimiko) joined the PDP, but
because he didn’t have to jump ship’?
Unquestionably, Dr. Mimiko, the medic-turned politician, will
stand out when the history of this democratic enterprise is
written. His place as somebody who perhaps did more than
any other in demonstrating that goodwill rather than party
structure is more important in propelling one to office would
remain uncontested. So also the demonstration of a high level
of capacity at building a party machinery which within four
months turned a non-existent LP into a platform strong
enough to dislodge a sitting governor who had not only been
in office for four years, but had the entire presidency at his
beck and call. Now, if we may ask, how much has Mr.
Momodu achieved in transforming his own NCP into that
national third force that he craves since he flew its
presidential flag in 2011?
On a final note, it is apposite to aver that the solace in all of
these is that Mr. Momodu perhaps did not write out of
mischief, since he claimed that Dr. Mimiko is ‘one of the
politicians (he) genuinely loves in Nigeria’. But now that the
issues he did not know about have been brought into the
open, it would be a mark of honour for him to accept that he
made mistakes in his analysis and for dubbing Mimiko’s well-
thought-out decision as a misadventure; and for the benefit of
those who may have read him, make a recant. It is not a
mark of weakness to so do, but of self-confidence which we
want to believe the publisher of Ovation has, if his loud
fashion sense is anything to go by.
A TEAR FOR GOVERNOR MIMIKO
Dear Sir, I could not but shed a tear for you after reading the
vitriolic attack on my person by your hatchet man, Kayode
Akinmade, your Commissioner of Information, who threw
decorum away and punched me, my wife and children. But for
the fact that Kayode sent a hopeless rigmarole to Thisday
about four times and was requested to rewrite his piece, the
world would have been forced to read the most reckless
rejoinder ever.
I never believed a day would come when you would voluntarily
join the renegades of Nigerian politics. I started worrying on
your behalf during the infamous Governors’ Forum saga when
you turned simple Arithmetic upside down and concluded 16
were greater than 19. I wept as I watched one of my heroes
descend from the Olympian height where we had placed him.
After that inglorious outing I still lived in denial out of love
and for the protection of the few manageable leaders in our
clime but you actually plunged further into abyss like other
apostates before you.
Not that we didn’t know you wanted to return to PDP in
confirmation of Paulo Freire’s theory in Pedagogy of the
Oppressed; that the Oppressed loves and respects only one
person, his Oppressor. Speculations about your intension had
been rife since becoming Governor. Your former Chairman Dan
Nwanyanwu confirmed this in an interview he granted Sunday
Independent about four years ago:
“I will not deny that there has not been pressure from
different quarters to take the only Governor we have out of
our party… Initially it was the PDP who felt he should come
back to the fold… but I can tell you that dumping a political
party that gave you the vehicle to victory has to do with the
character of the individual. Most people who have done it and
are still in the country lack character, they lack honour,
integrity…”
The only times people can jump ship are if they have
irreconcilable conflicts with their party, parties agree to a
merger or total lack of principle and ideology. I left Labour
Party on the first note and did not turn right but went left to
NCP. I’m not a Governor and cannot have the resources or
appurtenances of power to help NCP. I don’t have to dump
NCP before joining forces with other opposition parties to seek
alternative leadership in my dear beloved country. If you are
happy with the way Nigeria is going, I’m not. I believe you
could still support President Jonathan without killing Labour
Party and the spirit of many of your helpless supporters. The
Deputy Prime Minister of Britain, Nick Clegg is not in the same
party as Prime Minister David Cameron and he has not
considered joining the Conservative Party as a way of
conveying loyalty to his boss. I would have been proud if you
had set such standards for us but you killed our hopes.
When tomorrow comes, I have no doubt my admonition shall
come back to you as words of wisdom. Good bye Iroko.
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