Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo State Governor, may have the delivery of dividends of democracy as a frontline issue he bothers his head with all the time; the ill-health of his deputy, Alhaji Ali Olanusi is also a knotty issue he goes to bed with every night.
Occasioned by geriatric frailties, which has turned him to a regular visitor to hospitals within and outside the shores of Nigeria, the 72-year old Olanusi may be dropped before the expiration of Governor Mimiko’s second term in 2006.
While the governor may be recording relative success in finding solutions to the hydra-headed social issues confronting his domain (Ondo State), Olanusi’s ill-health has been a subject of concern to Mimiko and his team. Olanusi was almost impeached last year when his absence was becoming too embarrassing a situation for the government, but timely intervention of Mimiko stemmed the plot.
With Mimiko’s intervention, everything assumed a calm posture until February this year when he (Olanusi) slumped at a public function where he had gone to represent his boss and was billed to commission a project. That event was kept away from the public as the few pressmen present were appealed to not to report the unfortunate event.
Few days after the incident, elders of their party, Labour Party, sought Governor Mimiko’s audience and counselled him to replace his deputy with a more vibrant and younger politician from Akoko where the incumbent also comes from.
According to a reliable source, Mimiko consequently held a meeting with Olanusi where he asked him to choose a likely successor whose loyalty to him (Olanusi) will be unquestionable, so that he could resign and attend to his fragile health. The deputy governor turned down the offer but later came back to the governor and submitted the name of his son as the only person whose loyalty to him he could vouch for. Sensing that the governor was a bit hesitant about his choice, he appealed to the governor and assured him that he was strong enough to continue in office.
For now, it is a stalemate for Mimiko on the next step. The administration of Dr. Mimiko has seen few prominent members of his team pass away in the last one year. This list include his former Commissioner of Information, Ranti Akerele; former Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Deji Falae; and Honourable Samuel Adesina, former Speaker, Ondo State House of Assembly, to mention the notable ones.