President Bola Tinubu has secured the support of the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party in the 2024 Ondo State governorship election, Dr. Abass Mimiko, who has declared that the president deserves to be re-elected for a second term, citing his achievements during his first term.
Mimiko, who is the younger brother of former Ondo State Governor Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, stated that Tinubu had done well in rescuing the economy from collapse, particularly with his decision to remove the fuel subsidy.
Mimiko made the remark while speaking with journalists in Ondo Town, Ondo State, on Sunday.
He said, “I believe the president deserves a second term in office. Why do I say so? To address this issue, I want us to first of all situate the issues. Where are we coming from? Where are we now? And where do we intend to go with Nigeria?
“Yes, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu put himself out there that he wanted to be president. He announced that he wanted to run. He ran. He even said he wanted to be president, and he became the president. So we can’t excuse anybody about what he meant. I give it to him; he hasn’t excused himself.
“He said, ‘Do not pity me. This is what I asked for. Just let me get my hands dirty and do the work for Nigeria.’
“Most people don’t know that by the time President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over the reins of power, Nigeria was on the brink of absolute total economic collapse. Most people don’t look at that reality.
“When he took over from President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria was already in serious debt. We had lost credibility in terms of our finances globally. Subsidy was consuming trillions of naira of our hard-earned money. People were selling and buying dollars as far as their influence could carry them. Insecurity was all over the country.
“He inherited from the previous administration an economy that was spending up to 98 percent of its earnings to service debts alone. Not to pay them, to service debt. We had no budget for subsidy.
“So, I am of the firm opinion that if somebody has made the effort to bring us out of the pit of absolute failure to where we are talking about basic stability, even if we are not there yet, I think that person deserves to have his hands on the plough to now take that economy to prosperity.
“I think he’s done well. I think the state governors ought to be called to account.”
He noted that although he belonged to the opposition, his support for Tinubu was based on his belief that the president was determined to reposition the country.
He said, “When he (Tinubu) said, ‘I want to be president,’ and we voted for him and he came in, he met a broken system, and he’s doing everything to fix it.”
“So, do I think he deserves a second term? I’m a realist; I’m a pragmatist. I think he deserves a second term.”
Mimiko, however, called on Tinubu to find ways of ensuring that funds allocated to state governments were properly spent for the benefit of Nigerians.
“If I’m to advise the President, I will tell him, ‘I don’t know how you go about it, but how do you make sure that the states grow food?'” If you take hunger away from the problem of Nigeria, a lot of things will be easier.
“The President said something recently. He said the governors are building overhead bridges all over the place instead of spending on things that are fundamentally important to the lives of their people.”
