Immediate past governor of Ondo state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has tasked Nigerians to hold political leaders to account as this is a major way to emplace an egalitarian society.
The former governor made the remark at the weekend while delivering a lecture on ‘Leveraging political commitment for safe motherhood in Nigeria: the example of Ondo State’, to a group of participants at a short course on Maternal and Child Health in resettlement organized by the Social Standards node of the World Bank Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health at the University of Benin (SPESSE-UNIBEN)
According to him, “The best way to ensure that laudable programmes of governments are sustainable is for citizens to elect the right leaders and continue to ask questions from those in office. I charge you to stand up for the truth and support pro-poor policies at different levels.”
While itemising infant and maternal health performance, urban and rural development, qualitative education of the masses, and security as key areas through which performance of governments could be assessed, he charged the people not to be contented with brick and mortar alone.
Mimiko said the award-winning Abiye Safe Motherhood program of his administration came into being as a result of the embarrassingly high maternal mortality rate before he assumed office.
“It gives me joy to see that pregnant women, who had no access to quality healthcare, enjoyed top rated and free health services under our administration in Ondo state. We would not have achieved this without political will. I charge political leaders and players to make healthcare a priority as we go into elections in 2023” He said.
Though the focus of the lecture was on healthcare, Mimiko talked about other aspects of governance and expounded on the philosophical framework of his caring-heart administration, which according to him was to the poor in the society out of poverty.