Finally, Mimiko Dumps LP, Returns To PDP With Two LP Senators, 25 Ondo Lawmakers

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko may have dealt a big blow on the Labour Party (LP) as he finally dumped the party that brought him to power in the state on Thursday.

Formally declaring for , and returning to, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a reception held for him right inside the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mimiko, who was welcomed back into the PDP by Vice President Namadi Sambo and other PDP officials, also brought along with him two LP Senators and 25 members of the Ondo State House of Assembly.

The Thursday declaration by the only governor elected on the platform of LP was preceded at the Presidential Villa by a meeting of South West PDP leaders presided over by Senate President, Senator David Mark. The meeting was also attended by members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC).

With his defection, Mimiko, who officially received the PDP flag from Sambo at the occasion, is now the new PDP Leader in Ondo State.

Expressing deep appreciation of the PDP to Mimiko for the decision to return to the party, Sambo, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the occasion, maintained that Mimiko's defection has opened greater fortunes for PDP in the South West.

“We are confident your excellency to say that with your coming, the issues in the South West will be resolved from now on,” Sambo said as he directed the Party's Deputy National Chairman and the Party Secretary to immediately organise a rally of the party in Ondo State.

Speaking at the occasion, Senator Mark, who is also the Chairman of the Integration Committee for the South West Zone, applauded Mimiko whom, according to him, had conducted himself properly in a manner of other PDP Governors, saying he was not surprised that the Ondo State governor has returned to the party.

While pleading with Vice President Sambo to attend the Ondo rally to show forth the new PDP strength in the State, the Senate President urged Mimiko to immediately set up a committee to work out the harmonisation of all the new structures.

Mimiko in his speech at the occasion declared that his immediate target is to help the process of President Jonathan's re-election in 2015.

“We hope to be part of a process of creating, especially in the South West, a solid and robust platform of involvement in the election of the President, governors and legislators and post election governance structure which will help to engender rapid socio-economic development”

“It is in the light of the foregoing that I, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, following extensive consultations across the land, today formally announce the decision of members of National Assembly from the LP in Ondo State, members of the LP in the Ondo State House of Assembly, members of the State Executive Council and indeed all those who share our aspirations, to join the PDP,” he said.

Speaking further, he said: ” It surely was tempting and perhaps more fulfilling to continue as a national leader in our smaller, calmer and quite promising ocean represented by the Labour Party. This decision to return to the PDP, we have taken in the overall interest of our people and our nation, and its democracy which for those who are perceptive enough to notice, is now mortally endangered by a constellations of forces which must be confronted.”

May I then add, that we take this epochal decision conscious of the fact that no political party in Nigeria today is anywhere near the point of perfection. But we are persuaded that joining hands with other Nigerians, committed as they are at repositioning the PDP on a continual basis, is the appropriate thing to do today. And considering that it was under this same PDP that I was privileged to serve, first as Secretary to the Government of Ondo State and later as Minister of Housing and Urban Development from July 2005 - December 2006, this is for us a homecoming of sort.

“I thank President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, for making this choice so compelling by the way and manner he has used power and supported democracy these past years. I thank the leadership of our party, the PDP, for their doggedness. I today make a solemn pledge to join hands with you all our esteemed leaders in persuading other Nigerians to re-elect our President for a second and most deserving term.'

According to Mimiko, “One thing that Nigeria's political history has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt is that the nation has always moved in the direction of a two-party system. The current dispensation has thrown up the PDP and the fledgling APC. Smaller parties are thus constrained at operating only at the fringe of the political process with all the restrictions thereto for greater political involvement and action.

Historically, every attempt to build a third force in this bipolar environment has not only been quite expensive but actually met with muted success. What is more, the argument is unassailable that the two party dominant system has always worked to enhance national unity and facilitated the process of nation-building as all key players are invariably compelled to work within either of the two dominant parties without regard to religious, regional and ethnic specificities.

Aligning with either of the two dominant political forces in the current dispensation is, therefore, in the circumstances, the correct democratic position to take at this historical juncture.

“The two critical poles emergent in the political geography of the nation today have been with distinct tendencies and orientations. While there is noticeable effort to widen the space for internal democracy in one, the reverse seems to be the case in the other. It must be pointed out that this tendency at democratic governance was one reason that made the PDP so attractive, and accounted for our reason to take its membership, in 2003.”