Nearly four years after leaving office as the Executive Governor of Ondo State, the memories of his leadership remains as evergreen as it were, during his reign as the Chief executive of the State, not when ever the people remember that he once led their prosperity, but also, when they are confronted with the realities of what governance as been reduced to, in a state, we once described, as a place of pride, under the great Iroko.

Since his exit, our people no longer wake to cheering news of government's landmark achievements, such as out famous Mega Schools, an unprecedented innovation of the great Iroko, which had each of the schools with capacity for over 500 pupils providing conducive learning environment with contemporary facilities for the learners. The facilities include among others: computer laboratories, modern library, sick bay, and recreational facilities with magnetic boards. It was a period when school children clad in uniforms freely provided by government and are seen working dexterously with the computer. The aesthetic beauty of the architectural design and landscape of the Mega Schools were food for the eyes!

Nelson Mandela tells us that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. It is education that could and would make the child of a ‘nobody’ to compete and most times outclass the children of somebody.



In the light of the greatness and power attached to education, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko's administration invested massively in the sector for the eight years he was Governor and that is why he refined and redefined the parameters of education in Ondo state. His mantra has always been service to motherland, and there can be no better service than to ensure that your motherland has a better future. This is what has informed his administration’s unparalleled investment in education, the provision of several primary school blocks, secondary schools, outstanding world class 50 mega schools, the refurbishment, expansion and reinvigoration of the Adekunle Ajasin University at Akungba, and the first of its kind the University of Medical Sciences at Ondo City, the first in West Africa and second in the whole of Africa among several others.

Going by the massive investment by Mimiko in education, history has recorded it as one of his imperishable legacy.

Some critics were quick to query the need for mega schools arguing that most towns where these mega schools are being established do not have sufficient population in their catchment areas to fill up the spaces in such schools. This line of thought is of course either myopic or deliberately mischievous. Nigeria today is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. She is currently the seventh most populous country in the world with her 186,879,760 million people (Source: Internet World Stats) and believed to jump to 225 million in less than 10 years, it is only reasonable that a man with foresight should plan ahead. Besides, mega schools operate on the economics of scale and they are a win-win situation for the people and the state.

Furthermore, the greatest attraction for history is Mimiko’s extraordinary investments in health care delivery facilities making Ondo state first among equals in Nigeria under his administration. This gave birth to the globally recognised Mother and Child Specialist Hospital and the Trauma Centre in Ondo, first of their kinds, in our country.

The environment and surroundings of these hospitals were striking, clean and devoid of the typical hospital smell. It is adorned with well maintained lawns and general aesthetics that can make a visitor feel like being a patient. Dr Mimiko's administration, brought in committed professional caregivers across medical fields that are full of energy and drive to deliver excellence at all times. The hospitals have state of the art equipment, instruments, gadgets and hospital furniture for efficient service delivery and it is remarkable that these were well maintained and the necessary supplies needed for functionality of the equipment were never been lacking, during his time unlike what is now obtainable in these hospitals under the regime of his successor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, who have now nearly turned them into a showdow of what they were, as equipments are getting out of use due to lack of maintenance or consumables.

Unpublished data in the hospitals under Dr Mimiko puts the reduction in Morbidity and Mortality at more than 50% as compared to other healthcare centres in the country. The trauma centre for instance, had the record time for carrying out emergency surgical intervention which implies that all the preliminary preparations before surgery are done in a record time. It’s also noteworthy as an objective measure of these feats that the hospital was granted accreditation to train post graduate doctors in surgical specialties, in an unprecedented record time of less than one year after its commencement by the National Postgraduate Medical College, the West African College of Surgeons after a year and later by the West African College of Surgeons and National Post Graduate Medical College.

History will certainly look kindly, on the great Iroko, wherever our people visit the Mother and Child Hospital. The Mother and Child Hospital, performed thousands of major Obstetrics and Gynaecological surgeries free of charge. The hospital is a major battle axe in the Ondo State , World-acclaimed “ABIYE Safe Motherhood Initiative”, a lethal bullet against maternal death and under-5 morbidity and mortality. This was instrumental to the success of Ondo State being the only state in Nigeria to achieve MDG 5, under Mimiko as the Governor. The hospital was recognised by World Health Organisation (WHO) as a research-friendly institution and participated in her researches including the BOLD study, Growth study etc. Mother and child hospital was listed as a Research Centre for several multinational studies including the corticosteroid study, Kangaroo care study etc. Several local studies are ongoing.

The Kidney Care Centre Ondo completes the picture of the One-Stop Centre for health care delivery facilities in the Hospital Complex . According to reports Ondo State Kidney Care Centre surpassed all other public institutions that receive supplies of dialysis consumables from them within one year of commencing operation.

The Centre is the only full-fledged Renal Hospital in Nigeria . The first of its kind. This is because other renal units are sub-units of a medical department of a teaching hospital or medical centre.

It is also the only Renal facility with dedicated Resident Renal dietitians (BSc Dietetics and Nutrition), Clinical Psychologists (MSc Clinical Psychology), Medical Social Worker and Biomedical Engineers ( Ghana trained) working with the Nephrologists and dialysis nurses. This is unprecedented in Nigeria. The centre carries out capacity building for staff of the centre such as international experience and training of the Head of Nursing Services at the Dubai Fresenius Conference for renal nurses in 2014 and review update course for the Consultant Nephrologist at the Hamburg Fresenius sponsored conference in 2014. Continuing Medical Education training for medical doctors within and outside Ondo State holds annually at the Kidney Care Centre while the centre collaborates with Mother and Child Hospital Ondo to reduce maternal mortality. More than a dozen women who developed kidney failure have been saved by such an arrangement in collaboration with the Trauma and Surgical Centre Ondo to care for acute renal failure patients and reduce mortality in the Intensive Care Unit.

Space may not permit enumeration of all his achievements and contributions such as human capital development, urban renewal efforts exemplified by recreational centres, world class event centre ‘tagged the Dome’, modern super markets and modern neighbourhood markets with auxiliary complements built all over the 18 LGs, lush parks which have transformed the state especially the capital city to the cynosure of all eyes. The community development efforts is also unique and highly commendable where over 664 projects emerging from a need assessment process according to the dictates of the people themselves in a bottom up approach and top down support by government were executed in over 360 communities of the state, housing development policy and other inexhaustible life enriching programmes and policies.

No doubt there is a significant place for Mimiko in the annals of history and all the futile attempts at rewriting history, especially by agents of the incumbent regime in Ondo state, amounts to vain efforts. Our people remain one of the most sophisticated groups of people, you can find in any part of the world amd can never be deceived, by the antics of the detractors.

We desire a greater Ondo State, the one that seeks to consolidate on the revolutionary leadership left behind by Iroko in 2016, the one that can salvage the ruins of the past four years under this grossly incompetent leadership of Mr Akeredolu. This demands our collective action and the time is now.



Ondo State is our place of pride.

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IGpro1:
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Uhmm!

The role of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in the field of education cannot be forgotten as he as invest a huge amount of money in this sector. One must read best essays reviews before help in research paper so as to track the best writer for it. I personally feel lucky to complete my studies in his reign. I hope the new minister will be investing in the same way for the betterment of educational sector.

chatinent:
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