Former governor of Ondo State Olusegun Mimiko has said he returned to the Labour Party (LP) out of the conviction to join forces with a political ideology relevant to the need of the present day Nigeria.
He had on Wednesday, written to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) informing them of his resignation from the party.
The former governor stated that returning to the LP was borne out of “the need to catalyse a greater focus on the ideological content of the Nigerian political firmament.”
Mimiko said: “LP, and its few ideological soul mates among the legion of parties in the country today, provide the requisite platform for this type of deep ideological introspection.
“Without doubt, this social democratic mantra, which LP and its soul mates represent, remains the best possible outlet for leading Nigeria into a new era of progressive governance.
“We have also come with the conviction, consequent upon several years of practical involvement in the nation’s political process, that the need for ideologically focused political engagement is now more pressing than ever before.
“Virtually all the existing political parties in Nigeria today belong to the right of the centre, ensconced as it were in a neo-liberal mental construct, the name or mantra they choose to enrobe themselves in, notwithstanding.
“This is evident not in terms of the pretentious claims they make to ideological purity, but in the way and manner they have used power; including the extent to which they have mainstreamed the interest and welfare of the weak and poor in our society.
“This ideological fluidity, within which the nation’s extant democracy has evolved since 1999, deserves now to be fully interrogated, with a view to engendering a transition to a more ideologically defined system of engagement.”