Eight Years Score Card of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

The tenure of Ondo state Executive Governor, Dr. Olusegun Abayomi Mimiko will come to an end on Thursday February 23, 2017. This brings to mind the biblical admonition in the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 that emphasizes that there is time for everything under the sun. Time to sow and time to reap. Time to be born and time to die. As for Dr Mimiko, the time to govern is fast winding up, while he is now expected to brandish the score card of his eight years administration to the people and posterity.
Several electoral promises were made by Dr. Mimiko in the run up to the April 2007 election that he contested against the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu. Mimiko promised to work for the people of Ondo state. He also assured that their pains would be his personal pain while he would equally partake in their joy. It is no gainsaying that Iroko has delivered on nearly all his electoral promises. This is not to shy away from the fact that the administration of Dr. Mimiko has its own low points. Nevertheless, it is of a fact that the high points of Mimiko’s government far out weighed the low points. Criticisms of a governor that broke the second term jinx in Ondo State and completed his two terms of eight years will not be unexpected.
Dr Olusegun Mimiko in all sincerity has blazed the trail to record unparalleled achievements during his eight years that he superintended over the affairs of the Sunshine State. No sector of the state has been left untouched by the Governor. Novel policies that are people oriented and people focused have been initiated and executed  by Dr. Mimiko. He has fulfilled his promise of bequeathing a 21st Century compliant primary schools to pupils of the state. The Governor has so far delivered 51 Mega Primary Schools across the three senatorial districts of  Ondo state. Dr Mimiko has succeeded in addressing the dysfunctional state of primary school in the state, which was the reason behind the Mega school concept that has produced world class educational edifices. The Governor has for the very first time in the history of Ondo, Nigeria and indeed the African continent delivered world class educational facilities for primary school pupils. This achievement was applauded by no less an individual than the Executive Secretary of the National Universal Basic Education Commission, Alhaji Modibbo Mohammed. Modibo at the time even beseeched other states in the federation to adopt the Mega School system as another way of strengthening the Universal Basic Education Scheme.
According to Dr. Mimiko, “State public schools, particularly of the primary education variety, face certain irrelevance, if not total extinction via dwindling pupils’ enrolment in the face of serious competition with private schools despite their commercial fees.The resultant effect of this inherently discriminatory system is that qualitative, but free primary and secondary education in the state became only a mental construct and catchy political sloganeering because in practice, only the rich could afford it”.
Mimiko had only cashed in on the state educational policy which provides the opportunity for the lumping of two or more existing primary schools together to make one Mega School, instead of having schools inadequate to build an educationally-sound critical mass. The Mega schools according to Dr Mimiko are the state government’s way of providing the best of education obtainable in private schools in the state’s public schools system and to serve as models below which future public or private schools cannot fall.
It is of a fact that the accompanying facilities of the Mega School meant for Primary school pupils in Ondo State is arguably the best in the whole of the African continent. The general believe concerning the Mega Schools is that only a few of its kind can compete with the schools in Europe and America.
Another first in the list of achievements of Dr. Mimiko is the establishment of the Quality Assurance Agency. The Agency has concern itself with the responsibility of maintaining high standard in schools across the length and breath of  the Sunshine state. The Agency has deployed its field inspectors for monitoring of activities of both teachers and students for optimal performances. Little wonder that Ondo state has produced the overall best and second best candidates in external examinations during the eight years of Mimiko. Successes achieved by the Agency has necessitated the need to understudy its mode of operations by the governments of Oyo, Ekiti and Osun states.
Another landmark educational achievement of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is the Free School Shuttle programme for students of public primary and secondary schools in Ondo state. Not less than Fifty Six Thousand (56,000) students are being ferried to and fro their schools across the state free of charge. A whole lot of financial relief has come the way of parents since the Free School Shuttle programme became operational. The beneficiary students themselves cannon be less appreciative of the Free School Bus Shuttle programme of Dr. Mimiko.
Record now has it that the much needed infrastructural funding for tertiary institutions owned by Ondo state was provided by the administration of Olusegun Mimiko. Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko now parades one of the best Senate buildings in Nigeria. The establishment of University of Medical Science, Ondo is one of the high points of educational achievements of Dr. Mimiko.
Agricultural sector of Ondo has likewise been revolutionized by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko during his eight years rule. Potentials of the sector have been maximized while employment opportunities have equally been created for hundreds of graduates through the sector. Scheme embarked upon by Ondo State Wealth Creation Agency has evolved into major Agricultural Business Cities at Ore, Auga, Ilara-Mokin, Akure, Epe and other Agric villages located within the state. This scheme has provided hundreds of gainful employments for young graduates of the state who are known as Profarmers and Agropreneurs. The Wealth Creation Agency now boast of dedicated farms for poultry, fish breeding, goat rearing and cattle rearing. The poultry farms at Ore and Epe have been churning out thousands of live and frozen chicken for local consumption in the state. The cattle farm at Auga has consistently been providing meat for the beef needs of Ondo state. It was once emphasized by the Chairperson of the Agency, Barrister Bolanle Olafunmiloye that the Auga cow farm would conveniently take care of the beef consumption needs of the Soutin west states instead of relying on cow supplies from the North. The Agency has also been involved in commercial production and sales of quality wigs for lawyers across the. The initiative according to the  Agency’s Chairperson was aimed at arresting the trend of importation of wigs into the country in the face of dwindling foreign reserve of the nation. WECA is also involved in production of honey, maize and cassava in commercial quantities. Mimiko deserves commendation by the people and indeed posterity for braving all odds to complete the long abandoned state owned semi mechanized abattoir located in Akure.
Health sector of Ondo State is one area where Dr. Mimiko worked so hard to save lives and provide affordable health care services. Early in the administration of Iroko had he embarked on the scaling up of the Abiye Safe motherhood programme in all the 18 Local Government Areas of the state for the purpose of premium priority . It is on record that the immunization coverage of Ondo state reached an all time high of 114% during the time of Mimiko while the state remained polio free for a better part of his eight years.
Mother and Child Hospital, Kidney Care Centre, Gani Fawehinmi Diagnostic Centre and the University of Medical Sciences, which is first of its kind in Africa are the medical facilities that will fetch Dr Mimiko high ratings for a long time to come. These health facilities were also with a state-of-the-art emergency Communication Centre and fully operational Histopathology and Forensic Centres.
Establishment of the Trauma and Surgical center is another area where Olusegun Mimiko has scored all time high rating in health sector of Ondo state. The centre now offers key specialties in Orthopeadics and Trauma, Plastic Surgery, ENT, Anaesthesia and General surgery. The center has continually improve and augment its services, infrastructure and personnel to include Paediatric Surgery, Urology, Maxillo – facial Sugery and Opthalmology. The centre had carried out not less than 5000 surgeries during the eight years of Mimiko’s administration. The Trauma Centre also runs a 24 hours emergency services in General Surgery, Burns, Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Other areas of speciality concern of the  center also include Orthopaedics and trauma, Neurologic surgery, Paediatric surgery, Otorhinolaryngology, Anaesthesia, pharmacy, Nursing, Physiotherapy, and Radionter diagnosis.
The Trauma center and other medical facilities put in place by Dr Mimiko at the Medical Village offer  ancillary support services which include obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, radiology and laboratory support. Trauma Center alone also provides out – patient surgical services and offer other patients elective day – case surgeries with efficiency in – patient care, oncology, endocrine, hepatobiliary, breast surgery, a special Burn Centre and intensive care services. It is to the credit of Dr Mimiko that the Trauma and Surgical Centre always provide care to patients before billing;  this no doubt emphasizes the true intention of the government’s commitment to saving lives.
Another area of very high achievement rating for Olusegun Mimiko in the health sector is the establishment of Ondo State Emmergency Medical  Services  Agency (ODEMSA). It was put in place by the outgoing governor to further strenghten the emergency medical services in the state. The mandate he gave to ODEMSA is to provide emergency rescue, pre-hospital and hospital services to road crash victims in the state. He made available five (5) fully functional Accident Rescue Stations along the highways across Ondo state namely Ore, Bolorunduro, Ilara, Owo and Oka-Akoko. He made provision for One hundred extricators and One hundred paramedics that work 24 hours in all the stations , while the response time to accident scene is 15 minutes with the  view to further reduce it in nearest future. Mimiko had also ensures that each of the station has an Advanced Life
Support Vehicle that is equipped with oxygen and other needed medications for sustenance until the victim is conveyed to the nearest hospital or the Trauma Center.
Olusegun Mimiko has also worked to reverse all negative indices that had before his administration placed Ondo state in a position  of worst health status with maternal mortality standing at 745 per 100,000 live births. This has since been successfully reversed. Maternal mortality of the state between 2009 and 2012 dropped to 317, while  the figure has further come drastically down to 143 as at today.
Posterity will continue to be kind to Dr Mimiko for a 15-chamber dialyses center he established to attend to the  renal health of Ondo state residents and Nigerians at large. The kidney and Trauma Centres were fully equipped with highly skilled, innovative and committed professionals in all required fields. The centers also  boast of state of the art equipments which include 64-side CT scan, ultramodern laboratory, effective blood transfusion system, oxygen plant and standard operating theatre. The Trauma and the Kidney Care Centers alone had carried out over 5,000 surgeries and over 4,000 dialysis respectively from March 2014 when the facility became operational till date.
The administration of Olusegun Mimiko has also made committed intervention in the housing sector of the state. It is on record that  none of the Governor’s predecessors has deemed it necessary to pay serious attention to this sector in the last 28 years. Mimiko has indeed delivered well over 2,500 units housing projects in the course of his eight years rule. The outgoing governor deserves credit  for the beautiful, serene and aesthetically enhanced Housing Estates located at Oba-ile and Oda road in Akure.
Determined efforts were equally made by Dr. Mimiko to improve the welfare of the residents of Ondo state through the critical intervention of Community Development Ministry. Specific needs of several communities have been catered for through this ministry. The brain child ministry of Dr. Mimiko has so far reached out to virtually all communities in Ondo  state using its 3i’s initiative. Government’s agents were mandated to approach each community for its needed project, after which a contractor was selected within the locality to execute the agreed project. Projects so far executed under this arrangement included medical centres, town halls, roads, schools, water projects, markets, bridges among others.
Urban renewal is another area that so much attention and resources have been committed by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in his eight years as a governor. It can be said in all fairness that the achievements of Mimiko in this regard has been unprecedented in Ondo state history. It was through his  aggressive efforts in renewing both urban and rural centers of the state that he earned the sobriquet of “Asogbedigboro”, which literarily translates to someone that turned a rural areas into urban an place. Nearly all rural and urban places of Ondo State have witnessed a fair deal of simultaneous developments under the administration of Mimiko in the last eight years. The overall effect of this is that the urban centres are not only worth living for natives and residents alike; the living standard of the rural dwellers has equally been witnessed improvement.
Hygiene of all neighbourhood markets in Ondo state has received a new lease of life. This is in addition to the building of Millennium compliant Neighbourhood markets across the state. All the neighbourhood markets built are now operational, while the financial burden of paying premium rents for private shops owners by individuals has since been removed by Dr. Mimiko. The hitherto dingy Isikan market in Akure has since made way for a  modern, beautiful and hygienic one. Several neighbourhood markets have sprung up in Ondo town, Okitipupa, Ikare and other major towns of the state. The new market built by the administration of Olusegun Mimiko to replace the old one at NEPA area of Akure is particularly worthy of commendation.
The International Event Center otherwise known as the Dome built in Akure by the government of Olusegun Mimiko is another high point of his administration. The  ultramodern facility has since repositioned the Sunshine state having paid host to several national events at the capital city.
It is expected that any objective critics of Dr Olusegun Mimiko would rate him high in the area of road construction, road rehabilitation and road maintenance in the state. Posterity will continue to manifest kindness to the outgoing Governor for the dualization of Arakele road that had been deemed impossible for such purpose in the past. The road has since been completed and commissioned; while all affected property owners had been duly compensated. It has been recorded in the history book of Ondo that the dualization of Yaba, Ita-Nla, Surulere and Ademulegun roads all in Ondo town were undertaken and completed by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko. History will equally be kind to the outgoing governor for the dualization of Owo township road that has since been completed. Building of state of the art road shelters in Akure, asphalt resurfacing and beautification of Oba Adesida road were all carried out during the eight years regime of Iroko. It is already in history that Democracy Park in Akure was built by the government of Olusegun Mimiko. Road reconstruction of the Odo-Ikoyi street was also achieved during the eight years administration of Dr. Mimiko. It is equally on record that the dualization of Oba-Ile- Airport road in Akure was achieved by the government of Mimiko. The repair of Owo-Ikare road, Ikare-Oke Agbe road, Okitipupa township road, Igbara-Oke internal road amongst several others were all achieved by the administration of Mimiko. The construction of Iyansan – Ajagba road, the 29km Ikare-Arigidi-Ikaram-Ajowa road, Irese road in Shagari Village and Igbotu Inikhoroggha roads are all attributable to the administration of Olusegun Mimiko.
The dualization of Parliamentary road, Alagbaka Akure and Oke-Alabojuto road, Ikare Akoko were also made possible by the Dr. Mimiko led administration. Rehabilitation of Supare township road, Irele-Araromi-Ayeka road amongst others were also made possible by the administration of Iroko. Another high point of the administration of Olusegun Mimiko is the high grade quality traffic lights and aesthetics beauty of the capital city and that of other major towns in the state.
Construction of quality sporting  infrastructure and visionary sports management in the state are achievements attributable to Dr. Mimiko during his eight years. Football academies spread across the three senatorial districts of the state and the upgrading of stadia across the state  with Astroturf pitches and completion of the long abandoned Olympic size swimming pool in Akure are other sporting legacies of Dr. Mimiko. It is now on record that the state owned premier league club, Sunshine Stars Football Club made it to the semi final stages of both CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation cup during the cause of eight years administration of Olusegun Mimiko.
Achievements of Olusegun Mimiko in his eight years could still take many more pages to enumerate. It is of a fact that not all grounds could be covered by the outgoing governor, but record abound that he he had indeed worked assiduously to fulfill most of his electoral promises. It is expected of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to walk tall and hold his head high after leaving office on February 23, 2017 in view of evident landmark achievements attained in eight years.
Credit: Triangle News Magazine