Mayaki roundtable and the difficult to sell candidate

    Mr. John Mayaki as he addressed the          press

By Bernadette Idalu

A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and media guru, Mr. John Mayaki, yesterday, June 14, 2024, kept tongues wagging when he made known at the 5th "Mayaki’s Roundtable with Friends in the Media" that he would not be  associating nor promoting a “Difficult to sell candidate,” to the electorates in the September 21, 2024, governorship election, on the same day the APC in its stead rolled out its drums to celebrate its candidate as its campaign council in Edo State got inaugurated. 

Was this timed or merely coincidental? One might ask, but, the facts remain sacrosanct that, Mayaki is bringing to light a previously overlooked political ideology presently gaining traction, based on facts brought to light in his round table theme, “Party Supremacy, Competence and the Future of Edo State.”

With the tilt of above happenstance, it is trite to say that Mayaki has by his position stirred the hornets nest with his submission that he would not promote a difficult to sell candidate, maintaining instead, "For me therefore, I have made up my mind to commit myself to encouraging my numerous supporters across the state, especially in my local government area, ward, and unit, that they vote for the candidate who will best develop the state, regardless of political affiliation. I mean a man who has the carriage, clout and charisma befitting of a Governor."

“In this governorship election, it will not be about party. It will be about the man who will help us develop this state. That is the man myself and my supporters will vote for."

Mayaki while airing his views, revealed that despite still being an integral part of the APC fold, he desists from being held captive by the idea of a party supremacy, hence he already  pitched camp with a yet to be disclosed candidate whom his people and friends would identify with as he insisted that the yet to be revealed person's resume fits the ideal criteria for one who emerged as the state governor, far  away from the factional and fragmented APC, he asserted.

He avowed, "Irrespective of party supremacy, the future of Edo state is more supreme in my heart. My first commitment is to the state while the party is secondary.”

Based on the poignant but dynamic question and answer session which followed the declaration of an unbeknown and undesired Monday Okpebholo's candidacy by Mayaki, one wonders if the party is at the verge of an implosion?

Well, the state is undergoing a political renaissance on all sides and Mayaki might have unwittingly transported inquisitive minds to the legendary and mythical Lake of Endor, through his roundtable, daring participants to break free from political hoodwinking by piercing through the enchantment which primes controversy in its wake, even as he leaves clues behind in a see through psychological jigsaw puzzle for journalists and friends to piece clues together to point society in the direction of a new political leader for the state.

Also, Mayaki seems to have intentionally given controversy a French kiss with his dismissal of, and adoption of another candidate operating outside his political divide, thereby, jettisoning the idea of party supremacy. He also tries to demystify misconceptions surrounding party loyalty.

Aside the mythical Lake of Endor, there is also a folklorist Endor which exists in Disney's "Star Wars," a place "Secluded in a remote corner of the galaxy, the forest moon of Endor where a decisive battle occurred. It was the lush, forest home of the Ewok species and the gravesite of Darth Vader and the Empire itself. It was here that the Rebel Alliance won its most crucial victory over the Galactic Empire."

As the decisive September 21 date draws closer, just like William Shakespeare's dramatic portrayal of the tragedy of Julius Caesar where the soothsayer in Act 1, Scene 2 tells Caesar to beware the "Ides of March," a warning he ignored, also, this roundtable acts like the biblical handwriting in the wall which can be interpreted, at this stage, to be a warning for all contending political parties and their candidates to put their house in order to prevent them walking the cock but ending up as feather dusters especially now that families and friends do a one way political decamp.