Since I have known Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the present Governor of Ondo State, he has never got in line behind any cause, noble or otherwise, unless it favours him, it's benefits or discomfort to the people notwithstanding. This is the true nature of Segun Mimiko. His political history, which has become a sterling case study in betrayal, reveals that much.
I need not dwell on how he stabbed the likes of Adefarati and Agagu in the back and, as recently alleged, had his government hire a God-forsaken plane to convey the remains of Agagu to Ondo State as though his intention was to ensure that Agagu does not rest, even in death. Such is the bile this man carries around that scruples and good conscience are the two vilest words in his vocabulary. But in spite of all these, one still expects that Governor Segun Mimiko, once in a while like the right-side thief at Calvary, rises above his unscrupulous self, especially given that he has children and must at this stage be thinking of what legacy he hopes to leave behind. Some of my friends have however argued that Abacha also had children.
The Jonathan presidency-bestowed assignment Mimiko has been saddled with in the Southwest sure leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but not if one understands the dynamics of the GEJ-Mimiko marriage of ill ambition-driven bedfellows.
Knowing full well that winning the Southwest in the 2015 presidential election would be an almost impossible uphill task, President Jonathan and his handlers began to plot stealthily on how to break the ranks of the opposition in the region, especially by identifying an Achan in the opposition's camp, who, like his biblical precursor, is capable of instigating confusion. Mimiko readily came to mind for certain reasons: (1) his betrayal streak (2) his cosmetic performance which when held side by side with what Ondo State grosses leaves little to imagination.
When held under the magnifying glass of the EFCC, the Mimiko administration crumbled like a pack of cards. Precisely on March 20, 2012, the Chairman of Ondo State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Debo Ajimuda, was arrested by the EFCC over a N61.63 billion fraud. It was disgustingly discovered that a commission which for three years under the Mimiko administration had budgeted N40 billion for projects in the two oil-producing local councils in the state achieved nothing other than Ajimuda's lighter complexion, his 13 exotic cars found in his house among which were a Toyota Tundra SUV with registration number FY 195 ABC; a Mercedes Benz R500 4matic with registration number DK 777 FST; a Toyota Corolla with registration number HJ 805 ABC, a two-door Toyota Solara registered with the number EU 777 ABS and a Toyota Venza with registration number ODGH 2947 in which the EFCC ferried him away.
One would have expected that Ajimuda and his boss, Mimiko, for whom he held brief at OSOPADEC, would be thoroughly investigated, but GEJ certainly had other uses for Mimiko beyond 2013, 2014 and until 2015. Rather than allow EFCC to make him account for his heartless pilfering of Ondo State resources, GEJ chose to hoodwink him into agreeing to be the Achan in the Southwest. Being the unscrupulous fellow that he is and given his desperate bid to avoid prison and humiliation, he joyously accepted his new assignment of recruiting power-greedy fellows in all APC-controlled Southwest states to rise against their governors and in the process weaken the APC. The funds to effectively execute the job have since been regularly provided, hence the recruitment of governorship-hungry politicians like Opeyemi Bamidele in Ekiti State and Abiodun Akinlade, another House of Representatives member, in Ogun State. Labour Party Chairman Dan Nwanyanwu occasionally represents Mimiko at some of their nocturnal meetings.
In a sane society, the people of Ondo State should have asked what became of the Ajimuda/OSOPADEC/EFCC saga.
They should have asked why GEJ sacrificed his party candidate, Sola Oke, in the Ondo gubernatorial election and instead threw his weight, military inclusive, behind Mimiko.
They should have asked why Mimiko, with his two eyes open, would be at the forefront of championing that 16 surpasses 19 in the NGF election.
They should have asked why a typical Ondo town person (Mimiko) - a people known not to be subservient - would suddenly become President Jonthan's new handbag.
They should have asked why President Jonathan would support a Labour Party-sponsored Mimiko to win second term and would not do same for another opposition party, APC.
They should have asked why Mimiko, a governor on the platform of an opposition party, is stealing Ondo State funds with so much reckless abandon and Oga Jona's EFCC pretends not to notice.
The disposition of Abiodun Akinlade is not so difficult to fathom given that he was part of the pack before defecting to the defunct ACN and certainly still has PDP blood running deep in his veins. What however remains unfathomable for many is how Opeyemi Bamidele could so cheaply become subservient to a man tamed by the fear of prison like Mimiko - a serial betrayer.
But unlike many, I do not have any problem understanding Ope's decision because: (1) he is constitutionally allowed to contest (2) over-ambition and being power-greedy can best be understood from Macbeth's perspective when he declares of himself: "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other". A man driven by blinded ambition cannot reason well, except about attaining that ambition. It is as though his brain had gone on vacation and would not return until he is seeped in ignominy.
Hear Macbeth: "For mine own good all causes shall give way. I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er". This is how the mind of a man driven by selfishness-sprung over-ambition works. Nothing else matters to him except his ambition. Souls may be lost, careers may be ruined, bonds may be severed, progress may be halted; all these matter not to him except his ambition.
Abiodun Akinlade and Opeyemi Bamidele are in blind ambition mode now. Nothing can get them out of this mode except ignominy.
Abiodun Adegolu writes from Okitipupa, Ondo State.
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