Dr. Olusegun Mimiko​ was born on 3rd October, 1954, to Pa and Mrs. Atiku Bamidele Mimiko of Ondo, Ondo State. His great, great grandfather was the High Chief Adaja Gbegbaje of Ondo. His great grandfather, Chief Akinmeji, was the distinguished Ruwase of Ondo. His grandfather, Pa Famimikomi, was an accomplished man. His gallantry in those long years attracted great respect, some of which rubbed-off on his own son, the late Pa A. B. Mimiko, himself an accomplished manager of men and materials, a cocoa plantation farmer, an avid reader and monitor of global developments, an erudite social commentator and a compassionate leader of men. Dr. Mimiko’s mother is of the eminent Ogunsulie family of Ondo Kingdom.

Dr. Mimiko entered St. Joseph’s College, Ondo, in 1966, and left with the West African School Certificate in 1970. Between 1971 and 1972, he was a Higher School Certificate (HSC) student at the popular Gboluji Grammar School, Ile-Oluji. Dr. Mimiko entered the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife in 1972. In 1976, he bagged a B.Sc. Health Sciences Degree; and the MB; CH.B in 1980. He is appropriately registered with the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council as a Medical Practitioner.

As a medical doctor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has worked in different establishments over the past 26 years. Between 1980 and 1981, he was a House Officer with the Ondo State Health Management Board under which auspices he worked at the General (now State Specialist) Hospital, Ado-Ekiti. He had a stint with the Nigerian Naval College (NNS Onura), Onne, Port Harcourt, between 1981 and 1982, from where he returned to join the services of the Ondo State Health Management Board as Medical Officer in the General (now State Specialist) Hospital, Ondo, in 1982.

From late 1983 to 1984, Dr. Mimiko had his initial taste of private medical practice by working at different times as a Medical Officer at Apagun Clinic, Yaba, Lagos; and as Acting Medical Director, Alleluyah Hospital, Oshodi, Lagos. He returned to public service for another year between April 1984 and February 1985 (again with the Ondo State Health Management Board) before finally going into full private medical practice with the setting up of the MONA MEDICLINIC with headquarters at Ondo.

Beyond his professional and business callings, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has an abiding interest in politics. He predicates his political engagement on the conviction that responsible leadership through a social democratic process provides the basis for the resolution of Nigeria’s crises, and the emancipation of the African.

Dr. Mimiko’s many years of involvement in politics dates back to his university days at Ile-Ife where he was at various times a member of the Students’ Representative Council (Parliament), 1975/76, and Chairman of its Special Honours Committee. For a period in 1976, he was elected Chairman (Speaker) of the Students Representative Council. Outside the students’ legislative house, Dr. Mimiko served on the University of Ife Students’ Union Electoral Commission, 1976/77; and was the Public Relations Officer of the International Students’ Association of the University between 1977 and 1978.

As a full-fledged politician, Dr. Mimiko served as the Publicity Secretary of the Ondo Local Government chapter of the Chief Obafemi Awolowo-led Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in 1983. During the Third Republic, he was elected twice as ex-officio member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Executive Council in Ondo Local Government Area. He also served as a member of the Party’s Disciplinary Committee.

In recognition of his extensive involvement in grassroots mobilisation during the Third Republic, Dr. Mimiko was appointed Commissioner for Health and Social Services in January 1992. By the time he was leaving office in late 1993 as a result of the military coup d’etat that terminated that Republic, Dr. Mimiko had left his mark as a performer. In that short period, he facilitated the setting up of the Pharmacy Shop System under which 24-hour pharmacy services were being provided in the main hospitals around the State. He also conceived and brought into reality the idea of what came to be known as Accident and Emergency Centres in some of the State Hospitals in the then Ondo State (now Ondo and Ekiti States). These were centres furnished with state of the art equipment to attend to accident and other emergency cases confronting government hospitals everywhere in the country.

Again, in recognition of his extensive contribution to the victory of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 1999 governorship election in Ondo State, Dr. Mimiko was appointed the Honourable Commissioner for Health in the State, making the second time he would hold the office. Before he resigned his position in the State Executive Council on November 7, 2002, Dr. Mimiko had greatly enhanced the quality of health care delivery in the State. He brought real innovation into the health sector. His Ministry completed and equipped the Millennium Eye Centre, Akure, which still ranks among the best in Nigeria, within the first 100 days of the civilian administration. The Festivals of Surgery, under which auspices hundreds of free surgical operations were carried out to restore the sight of blind and partially blind patients and to relief those with hernia, were widely received across the State, and copied in many others. Needless to state that these brought succour and joy to the hearts of thousands of indigenes of Ondo State. Also though the instrumentally of the Health Rangers Scheme, Dr. Mimiko facilitated the delivery of health services to the innermost parts of Ondo State, providing thousands of rural dwellers with their real first contact with government.

The undeniable truth, attested to by citizens of Ondo State, is that the State Ministry of Health under Dr. Mimiko definitely added value to the Alliance for Democracy (AD) government in the State. In his characteristic modesty, Dr. Mimiko is always quick to give the glory to the Almighty God​.

On November 7, 2002, Dr. Mimiko resigned his appointment as State Commissioner for Health, “for strictly personal reasons”. In the conviction that he would be in a better position to facilitate more quality governance in Ondo State, and in response to calls across the State that he should join the gubernatorial race, Dr. Mimiko formally announced his intention to contest the governorship election on the platform of the AD on Tuesday, November 19, 2002, at a crowded Press Conference in Akure, the Ondo State capital. He gave vent to his conviction that for Ondo State, there certainly were BRIGHTER DAYS AHEAD!

Dr Mimiko had to leave the AD when it became obvious that the basis for democratic engagement was no longer in the Party. He the adopted the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as a preferred platform for the continuing struggle for enthroning good governance in Ondo State. After the victory of the Party in the April 2003 pools, Dr Mimiko was appointed the Secretary to the State Government, a position he occupied till July 2005, when he was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo as a Minister of the Federal Republic in charge of the Housing and Urban Development Ministry. It was from this office that Dr. Mimiko resigned December 8, 2006, to enable him offer himself once again for higher service to Ondo State as Governorship candidate in the April 2007 election under the auspices of the Labour Party.

Dr. Olusegun Mimiko Ondo State. / biography