Apart from the fact the he can write, Uncle Dele Momodu is a patriotic Nigerian; I perceive a patriot each time I read his column PENDULUM in THISDAY. He most times writes with palpable spirit of a patriot....read his piece on Mimiko defection

Fellow Nigerians, the cookie finally crumbled days ago. After many
years of speculations about the true political calculations and
permutations of Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the lone
Iroko tree standing for the Labour Party, the man finally defected back
to where he came from, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). As
aptly described by the defector himself, it was a homecoming. And
the PDP, desperate to retain power, by any means, at the centre next
year, wasted no time in welcoming back the proverbial prodigal son.
The party was in such a hurry that Dr Mimiko could not even enjoy
the honour and privilege of being personally received by his new
political godfather, President Goodluck Jonathan. He was welcomed
by the Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo, who was quick to
admonish him to return home and join hands with the PDP loyalists
who held fort while he went AWOL. The charismatic Chairman of the
party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, was also visibly absent. He would have
made an eloquent speech as usual rhapsodising about the greatness
of Iroko in Nigerian politics. I did not read anywhere that the father of
all godfathers, Chief Anthony Anenih, Chairman Board of Trustees of
PDP, made himself available on this occasion to welcome back their
lost sheep. Baba would have waxed lyrical about how difficult it is to
find a better party than PDP. Therefore, Mimiko was received by a
second eleven, and what should have been a major photo-opportunity
became an anti-climax. Such is the price you pay for making the
wrong moves at the wrong times in the wrong places.
I regard Dr Mimiko as one of the politicians I genuinely love in Nigeria
but he must be told the home truth for this misadventure. I’m
disappointed not because he joined the PDP but because he didn’t
have to jump ship. To do an adaptation of John Milton’s Paradise
Lost, what the Governor did was tantamount to reigning in hell when
it would have been better to serve in heaven. Our great Brother had
the opportunity of helping Nigeria build a formidable workers’ party
but he preferred to use and dump his Party in total disregard for
history and posterity. Nigeria is seriously desirous of a people’s Party.
It may not happen overnight but it is very doable through dint of hard
work and meticulous planning by accidental heroes like Mimiko.
Despite the chicanery of the Labour Party leadership, the party was
already forging ahead, albeit slowly but steadily, and it was only a
matter of time before it became a force to reckon with. Sadly, Dr
Mimiko has sacrificed that forward march with this selfish and
unnecessary decision.
Just in case he has forgotten, let me remind our Brother of a few
instances in the past. I vividly remember that beautiful afternoon
when I visited his home, opposite the American Embassy in Abuja, in
the company of our mutual friend, Tokunbo Modupe. Dr Mimiko was
home with only a few of his die-hard boys, including my good friend,
Oluranti Akerele, of blessed memory. The house was devoid of any big
man, contractors and the general parasites that litter the corridor of
power. Oga’s gentle wife was not at home and he had to personally
rummage the refrigerator to scavenge some drinks for us.
The reason for the Sahara-like ambience of the premises was easy to
guess-ticulate, Dr Mimiko was not yet in power. He was fighting tooth
and nail to rescue his mandate from the PDP candidate, Dr Olusegun
Kokumo Agagu, also of blessed memory. And nothing fails like failure.
I recollect how we engaged Dr Mimiko on his plans for the good
people of Ondo State should he secure victory in the courts. Tokunbo
Modupe and I sat with him for long hours. When we eventually left
him, I passed a comment to Tokunbo about the nature of winner-
takes-all politics in our dear beloved nation. I said there would have
been nowhere to park our car if the man was already Governor. I
always find such lessons very compelling, instructive and indelible.
Let’s now fast forward this salacious tale. By some stroke of
providence, miracle or merit, our Brother retrieves his hard-earned
victory from the artful dodgers. All his well-wishers including me were
ostensibly happy that the hocus-pocus was over. Our joy knew no
bounds. Our Brother rode triumphantly into the New Jerusalem called
Akure. We all called PDP unprintable names. One of my first few
encounters with the Governor was when he graced the Global
Excellence Achievement Awards. I gladly received him at the entrance
of the magnificent event centre, The Balmorals in Oregun Lagos, as we
walked hand in hand into the venue. The first thing I told him was the
awesomeness of God in restoring hope where there was none. I
pleaded with him not to go back to PDP after the dust finally calms
down and he said he had no such plans.
His victory on the platform of Labour Party had rekindled hope in the
possibility of political Davids defeating the behemoth of PDP
gladiators. There was every chance that there could be a Nigerian
party free from the stranglehold, and not dangerously controlled by
the irascible moneybags. In fact, I got the confidence to join the
Labour Party fully from that inspiration. I was very idealistic about
offering my modest support to those bold enough to create an
alternative platform to those so-called mega-parties. I fervently
believed in the Labour Party to mobilise and galvanise workers
nationwide for political emancipation. Nigeria can only continue to
wobble and fumble with the present crop of big-players who have no
iota of regard for the plight of the ordinary man.
One of my tall dreams was for Nigeria’s Labour Party to link up with
the British Labour Party for fraternal relationship and concrete
support and I worked assiduously on that linkage. Unfortunately, the
party leadership was less ambitious and more comfortable with
milking their sole Governor and any disgruntled big man that
absconded from embattled parties. Even at that, the party could have
seized the opportunity to build itself into a very powerful force in the
political firmament but the party soon became a dumping ground and
junkyard for all-comers. Before my exit, when I found the party
virtually irredeemable, I made spirited effort to persuade and
encourage the leadership to stay strong and try to build a virile
political machinery. But all those efforts went up in smoke.
My most regrettable experience was the way Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) allowed the party to pass off and leverage on its super-brand
without having any influence whatsoever on its shilly-shally
operations. The party wanted to cook its soup without sourcing the
requisite ingredients. I had watched with incredible dismay and utter
disbelief as the hopes of erecting a respectable worker’s party
evaporated in a jiffy. I found it strange that a country that paraded
many famous unionists could not boast of a serious Labour Party.
Even the Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole had to find his fortune
elsewhere. Just imagine Adams Oshiomhole seeking his Presidential
ambition on the scale of that massive party. He would have had ready
foot-soldiers in most of the workers in every ward across Nigeria. Had
Governors Oshiomhole, Mimiko and other influential politicians been
interested in such onerous task, they won’t have to labour in vain in
different parties today.
On my part, I had humbly resigned and moved on to an even smaller
party, the National Conscience Party, conceived 20 years ago by the
Senior Advocate of the Masses, Chief Abdul-Ganiyu Oyesola
Fawehinmi (He lives forever) where I fought hard to get my
Presidential ticket. My idea was to join a party similar or closer in
configuration to the ideology of a people’s party. I saw the light early
enough that the Labour Party was going to suffer a monumental
implosion and disintegrate so catastrophically. It was obvious that
Governor Mimiko had always been a Federal player and would soon
be tired of being a local champion. The truth about where his heart
truly belonged has now come out. While Dr Mimiko is certainly
capable of determining his own future, it is necessary for his major
fan like me to undergo this type of lamentation and mourning exercise
as a way of consoling those who feel totally let down by this latest
escapade in our political history.
What is there for Dr Mimiko to gain again in politics? God has been
very kind to him. He has been Federal Minister. He contested against
his former party from a very insignificant party and won. He sought a
second term and successfully fought both PDP and ACN to standstill
and still won. We know he loves President Goodluck Jonathan, either
for genuine or fake personal reasons, including the fear of EFCC, he
could still have carried on his crusade through the Labour Party. He
would have been able to kill two birds with one shot. He would have
spared himself and the President the kind of unforeseen crisis that
may soon erupt and enrapture PDP in Ondo State.
No matter what happens, not every Labour Party member would agree
with his reasons and follow him blindly to PDP. Many will start
kicking like victims of epilepsy when they discover they can’t realise
or fulfil their life ambitions under the umbrella of PDP. Some of them
would soon pale into irrelevance after being swamped up by PDP
chieftains. Conversely, many PDP members will reject the supremacy
of new-comers to their party. And they’ve started already. Can you
blame them? After working so hard against a man who had tried to
obliterate their party in Ondo State, they would now be forced to chew
the humble pie by calling a cow uncle in order to eat beef. Please, tell
me what would become of the original party leaders and elders who
built the party through sweat and blood. All those who had planned
to contest elections into various positions on opposing platforms
would be seeing double by now because of the personal decision of
one man, Dr Mimiko. Even Mimiko has shot himself in the foot. By the
time his tenure is over, he would have missed the chance of being a
Senator like other former Governors who use the Senate as their
retirement benefit. What then is the soul and purpose of this
brouhaha? This is grossly unfair when we recollect that Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu donated the bulk of South West votes to the same love-child
without decamping from his own party.
I would have understood this game better if President Jonathan had
agreed to hand over in 2015 to Dr Mimiko but there is no such
evidence and we all know that won’t happen. I appreciate Dr Mimiko
working actively for the re-election of President Jonathan in his
personal capacity. It is his right as an individual to support whatever
candidate he likes. However, he didn’t have to deal so fatally against
the party that brought him back from the shadows of death. Without
the Labour Party, PDP would not have found him useful today. He
would have vanished into total oblivion from our merciless political
landscape. At best he would have enjoyed relative obscurity. In short
without the Labour Party his star was dimming and his political
career was almost at curtains drawn as depicted by the ghost town
feeling of his Abuja home when I visited with Tokunbo Modupe. I
believe Iroko didn’t consider many things before taking this
disastrous action. The collective destinies of many of his supporters
have been mortgaged so recklessly. The teeming populace who
supported him because they believed that he had been hard done by
and deserved a measure of solidarity have been left to roast in their
own juice.
Iroko has jettisoned loyal Labour Party members who felt his
leadership was necessary in their bid to start the process of effective
opposition like jetsam and flotsam. He has given no consideration as
to the hiatus he has created.
As for most of those who followed him to Abuja like objects of mass
hypnotism, they will soon awake from their somnambulism when they
realise how much they’ve been short-changed in the new equation
that may never add up.
As if I knew. I had spoken with Tokunbo Modupe on the eve of this
riotous defection, asking him to convey my message to the Governor
not to defect. I was ready to concede to his support for anyone he
likes but didn’t share in this overkill. Tokunbo’s deafening silence
should have forewarned me that the deed was already done and I was
merely wasting my saliva. It is such a calamity that one of my
favourite politicians has somersaulted again like many tragic heroes
before him.
I worry no more for Mimiko. I worry for his hapless followers who have
seen him off to Golgotha. May they return in peace and not in pieces.

Typical of Nigerian Poli-thieves, never ever a reliable specie..
Always darting greedily across parties after their selfish interests..

A heart touching epic from a man that knows it all, when it comes to nigeria politicking. Mimiko Cross carpeting to another party, shouldn't be a surprise to u again. I only feel pity for the remaining trash called LP.

Insightful and thought-provoking.

Mimiko's return to PDP is just greed peculiar of average Nigerian politicians...Like Uncle Momodu posted, what is it that Mimiko want that he's not having. Well, if he did it for the sake of stopping any possible probe from EFCC, then he must be ready for double war that will soon hit him. A friend once assert the level of corruption in Ondo state, but I discarded it. Now I am beginning to believe; because come to think of it, what is he looking for again: once a commissioner, a Minister, a Governor,