Comrade Issa Aremu, Deputy Secretary of the Labour Party and Vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has criticized, the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, for his role in the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum ,NGF .
Aremu in a statement on Tuesday, lamented the governor’s position in the ongoing tussle, saying it is an embarrassment to members of his party and the Labour Movement in Nigeria.
He advised Mimiko to “urgently return to the path of social democracy which is the proclaimed ideology of the Labour Party (LP) and stop his current unacceptable open patronage of anti-democratic forces within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum”
He said members of the Labour Party and labour movement (which formed the party) have been grossly embarrassed with Mimiko’s role in the election of the Forum’s chairman and the eventual factionalization of the body.
The NLC official noted that “It is an open globally acknowledged democratic fact that Governor Rotimi Amaechi won the NGF election. Labour Party members are therefore shocked that Governor Mimiko (who just emerged from a similar free and fair election based on secret ballot) would be party to an unacceptable disputation of a simple majoritarian election by 36 governors.”
It would be recalled that Mimiko has pitched tent with the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang-led faction of NGF.
Results after the disputed May 24 election, showed that Amaechi beat Jang by 19 votes to 16.
However, Jang emboldened by a list carrying 19 signatures of governors who purportedly endorsed his candidature for the post has continued to insist that he won.
Already, his camp has opened a parallel secretariat in Central Area, Abuja. It has also launched a website with the same internet address as the previous.
Full text of Aremu’s statement:
GOVERNOR MIMIKO MUST URGENTLY RENEW HIS SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC CREDENTIALS
THE PROBLEM
As a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Labour Party, I am constrained to call on the Labour Party’s Governor of Ondo State, Governor Olusegun Mimiko to urgently return to the path of social democracy which is the proclaimed ideology of the Labour Party (LP) and stop his current unacceptable open patronage of anti-democratic forces within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
-Members of the Labour Party and labour movement (which formed the party) have been grossly embarrassed with the recent exhibited role of Governor Mimiko in the election of the Forum’s chairman and the eventual factionalization of the NGF.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
Social democracy is the official ideology of the Labour Party. It among others, asserts that the only acceptable constitutional form of government is representative democracy under the rule of law, the bedrock of which is one person one vote.
It is an open globally acknowledged democratic fact that Governor Rotimi Amaechi won the NGF election. Labour Party members are therefore shocked that Governor Mimiko (who just emerged from a similar free and fair election based on secret ballot) would be party to an unacceptable disputation of a simple majoritarian election by 36 governors.
Labour Party’s Governor of Ondo State, Governor Olusegun Mimiko must urgently refill his democratic account which has suffered huge deficit by his uncritical association with governors who are no respecter for simple majoritarian outcomes.
The NEC of Labour Party held on the 11th of April. One of the key resolutions of the National Executive Council (NEC) was commitment to ideologically driven politics, unity and indivisibility of Nigeria. NGF is a pan-Nigerian forum. Any attempt to undermine the Forum through anti-democratic posturing further stresses the Federation at this critical period of national security challenges.
Labour Party cannot and should not be enlisted on the side of reactionary personality conflict that unnecessarily (atomises) the nation. Lastly LP is expected as a progressive party to constructively encourage President Goodluck Jonathan to act at all times as a statesman who should be above partisanship, look at the bigger picture of the nation and not marginal preoccupation of some partisan governors. The President came in through pan-Nigerian mandate, he should not be pushed to the politics of the margins.
President Jonathan has commendably respected the outcomes of elections in states where even his party lost including Ondo state under Labour Party. We should encourage the President along this path of respect for democratic outcomes and not diminish the President from statesmanship to crude partisanship.
Certainly an LP governor should not be party to anything less than democracy and statesmanship! It is never late for Governor Mimiko to redeem himself and the LP. At best he must respect the outcome of the NGF election just as the world respected the outcomes of our party’s election in Ondo state.