Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the immediate past governor of Ondo State and a former housing and urban development minister, accepted the nomination of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections on Sunday, October 7, 2018 in Abuja.
Below is the advance copy of the prepared speech sent to The Trent.
It is with great humility and gratitude to God, the leadership, and entire membership of our dynamic party, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), that I accept my nomination as the candidate of our party for the 2019 presidential election.
Let me quickly commend the process that has led to this exercise. Without a doubt, the leadership of the party, as represented by the National Chairman, Barrister Dan Nwanyanwu, mni, the National Executive Council (NEC), and National Working Committee (NWC), have all done a marvelous job in ensuring the timely, and successful conclusion of our candidate nomination process across the country. Once again, I accept the nomination to run for the office of president of Nigeria, and pledge that I would do everything in my power, and God being with us, to lead our party to victory in 2019.
Distinguished ladies, and gentlemen, I am confident that with the social democratic ideological orientation of our party, ZLP, the process through which ZLP emerged, its pedigree and those of its leading lights, we will not have trouble convincing Nigerians why it is the preferred option for them in the elections of 2019. As a social democratic party, committed to the enduring principles of good governance, utilitarianism (the greatest good to the greatest number), and a restructured federal system for Nigeria, ZLP is set to capture the imagination of Nigerians, and lead the process of renewing our republic.
I am resolutely committed to a programme of restructuring the Nigerian federation. This is with a view to affording every segment of the country the opportunity and privilege of development at its own pace, and in such a manner that the age long beauty in competitive development would be fully tapped. I am persuaded beyond any doubt, as I said in my declaration statement, that such would give vent to ‘that indomitable spirit of Nigerians, that spirit of accomplishment, which has made stars of individual Nigerians all over the world.’
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In addition to all the good that it portends, restructuring is a sure pathway to tackling the challenge of insecurity that has wracked virtually every part of our country, but especially the Northeast; and the Middle Belt in the past three or so years. We are committed to doing the needful to put an end to this unfortunate evidence of governance failure in our country. Allied to this is our commitment to a programme of rebuilding the damaged landscape of the larger Middle Belt region, and the Northeast.
We are determined to bringing the requisite competence, and clear headedness to the management of our economy, such that economic opportunities would be opened up to millions of Nigerians, in a manner that will take them off the poverty loop that has in more recent times so shamefully defined our country. We are committed to a programme of economic diversification that is deep in focus, and thorough in conception. We shall in this regard leverage upon the critical place of a strong, responsive, and responsible state that we must create, as the expansive space for private initiative in the economic development process is further consolidated.
The place of our women and youths in the development narrative shall be deliberately enhanced and entrenched. The two constituencies not only constitute the largest proportion in our population demographics, studies over the years have been conclusive that women are the most vital catalyst of social development. We, therefore, will approach issues relating to youth and women development from this ideological as well as practical outlook on their criticality.
With 91 registered political parties, and several of them fielding candidates in the upcoming presidential election, our duty as the flag bearer of our vibrant party, ZLP, is to bring to the attention of Nigerians those things that separate us from the pack. I say to my party members, we must not look down on our humble beginnings. We must focus, rather, on the size and weight of our ideas. We must focus on the purity of our ideological commitment. We must focus on our passion and compassion for the weak and the poor in society. We must focus on the clarity of our vision and thought that we bring to the fore for Nigerian as we go into the elections.
Let no mistake be made, we shall be calling upon Nigerians to assess us on the basis of what we had done in the recent past with political power. We shall juxtapose this with what our opponents have been able to do, as a critical element in helping Nigerians make up their minds about who deserves to be invested with power. It is with the confidence in the ability of Nigerians to make this existential decision in the 2019 elections that I go into the next phase in our struggle to save this country from extant division, poverty, and insecurity. We are out to disrupt settled assumptions, by focusing on our new ideological narratives that affect the people directly.
As I said on September 13, ‘Nigeria has for so long been a graveyard of dreams. It is high time we made of it an incubation hub for great ideas! That time is NOW! It is why I am running for president.’
We are running Because we care!
Because we care, we challenge the status quo!
Because we care, we challenge poverty!
Because we care, we challenge insecurity!
Because we care, we challenge discrimination against women!
Because we care, we challenge youth exclusion and despondency!
Once again, I thank our party, ZLP, and the leadership immensely, for considering me worthy to be our presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.
Long live ZLP
God Help Nigeria!
