Governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the last governorship election in Ondo State, Dr Abass Mimiko, has blamed political opponents of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the backlash that followed the recent comments of the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, on Small Scale Enterprise (SME).
Mrs Tinubu had advised Nigerians to explore small-scale businesses such as selling akara, groundnuts and kulikuli for their survival, a comment that has caused backlash in some quarters.
Mimiko, who is the younger brother of former Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, said the First Lady’s remarks had been deliberately misrepresented by members of the political elite and the opposition to discredit the administration.
Speaking with members of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Akure, the state capital on Thursday, Mimiko described the controversy as unnecessary, insisting that the First Lady’s statement had been blown out of proportion.
His words: “I think the whole idea is the elite and the opposition to her husband that are trying to make a mountain out of this. I think there is a lot of mischief going on.
”Oluremi Tinubu herself is not an elected public office holder in Nigeria. She is just trying her best through the Renewed Hope Initiative to support the Renewed Hope agenda of her husband.
” I think she has done a decent job, in fact an excellent job at that. The informal media is just trying to get ratings by making a whole lot of heavy weather out of this.”
According to him, Nigerians should appreciate rather than vilify the First Lady, arguing that her constitutional status differs from that of elected public officials.
Mimiko maintained that the foremost responsibility of the First Lady is to provide support for the President and ensure stability on the home front while he concentrates on governing the country.
Mimiko said: ”If you ask me what the primary job of the First Lady is, she is the handler-in-chief of the home front of the Commander-in-Chief of the Federation. She is to keep our President safe, well cared for, healthy and happy. We cannot quantify the value of that. If she is doing anything extra, we should appreciate her for it.”
He said that governing Nigeria was an enormous task, stressing that President Tinubu was taking difficult decisions aimed at rescuing the country from what he described as economic, political and social bankruptcy.
Mimiko said reforms such as the removal of fuel subsidy and efforts to ensure greater accountability in crude oil revenue had unsettled powerful interests that previously benefited from the system.
His words : “You don’t remove fuel subsidy, you don’t tell everybody that proceeds from crude oil must go into NNPC accounts before export without stepping on powerful toes. There are powerful syndicates, local and international, that are offended by all of these. So, for the First Lady to be there, staying strong for the President and keeping him safe, among other duties, we have to appreciate her.”
The former governorship candidate also highlighted the interventions of the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative, saying it had recorded significant achievements in healthcare, women empowerment and humanitarian support.
He cited her contributions to breast cancer prevention and treatment, tuberculosis control, assistance to widows and orphans of military personnel, food and nutrition programmes for vulnerable Nigerians, as well as initiatives designed to create more opportunities for women, insisting that those achievements deserved greater public attention than the controversy surrounding her recent remarks.
