FORMER Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Sunday, clinched the presidential ticket of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
He was unanimously elected without opposition by members of the party and delegates at its national convention in Abuja.
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In his acceptance speech, Dr Mimiko said with 91 registered political parties, and several of them fielding candidates in the upcoming presidential election, his duty as the candidate of party was to bring to the attention of Nigerians those things that separate us from the pack.
He admonished the party members not be intimidated by the big parties, rather, on the size and weight of our ideas.
According to him, 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.
“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,” he added.
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