John Mayaki is the chairman of the media campaign team of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the September 19 poll in Edo State. He spoke to Kunle Oderemi on the chances of his principal, wave of violence as campaign continues across the state.
HOW would you rate the chances of Pastor Ize-Iyamu in the coming poll and why?
I rate his chances as 10, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest chances. It is great you asked why. We have studied all the other contestants and I am sure you know that most people in state lean towards either Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC, for its part, has the right candidate – Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu – while the PDP has chosen to embrace the lure of incumbency and fielded Governor Godwin Obaseki. We in the APC who were happy to be rid of him are not illiterates and we are not poor in judgment. When we made Obaseki our standard-bearer for the 2016 campaign, he was the dark horse; no one knew anything about. He was the mysterious technocrat with an air of sophistication and we thought he was the man for the job. The party developed a mandate and sold the mandate to the people of Edo State because we had confidence that he could execute the mandate to the letter, represent the party’s ideals and consolidate the developmental strides that the party has been able to undertake in the state.
Having now watched for four agonising years as he has compounded administrative blunders with political blunders, we chose to let him go. Before we did that, the people of Edo had let him go. The party let him go because he is a liability to the party. The party feels the pulse of the people and that is why the people stand by the party. We know how to listen. His own people have rejected him because he does not know how to manage and maintain relationships with people. The only thing he is excellent at playing is the instruments of coercion. In that regard, he is like a ventriloquist. He plays the instrument of coercion and blames it on the person next to him. Just look at the state House of Assembly fracas he has been orchestrating since 2019. Just look at how he has troubled the courts so much that they are only too happy he has not darkened their tables with his meddlesome applications for this or that injunction.
But, he did not know the four years were an examination. We challenge him to bring out the mandate that the APC tasked him to achieve in 2016 and then show us how much of it he has accomplished. In his inaugural speech, he promised transparency and accountability. Ask him what has happened with all the memoranda of understanding (MoUs) he has been signing. His signature is everywhere, but he has failed the state. The state graded him and we saw that he had failed. Still, we gave him a chance to remain in the party, hoping to, in our leniency, rehabilitate and remind him of what it means to be loyal to a cause. He has been so consumed by power that he went and made his festering wounds the problem of the PDP. The PDP cannot feel the people’s pulse. They are too aloof from the people, and that is why their chances were low enough without the outgoing governor.
Already I read a report of how his deputy governor and running mate took him to task due to his inability or reluctance (we don’t know which one these days with the man) to fund his campaign. If that is true, then I would not be surprised. I worked with him for a year and I know what he is capable of. Such a behaviour will be consistent with what I know of him, and if PDP will not field the right candidate, will not fund its campaign, cannot provide a mandate for the people to believe in, will continue to remain aloof from the people, then I can answer your question by authoritatively telling you that the APC has done all these and, what’s more, our candidate is a proven philanthropist, who has for a long time, had an agenda to take Edo forward. Our chances are 10 out of a possible 10.
What do you consider as the main issues in the election and why?
The main issue is PDP’s sportsmanship. Already, they have shown irreverence for due process towards even their own candidate by being veritable publicans. They have displayed a marked willingness to play dirty to be in Osadebe Avenue as soon as possible. Their candidate, for his part, does not know the difference between right and wrong. Maybe as an economist, all he sees is a scale of preference and what he most wants is to retain power so his alternatives to forgo may include free and fair election. I am not putting it past the PDP to orchestrate violence and destruction at the election. You must recall his frivolous gazette (whatever happened to that gazette?), which was engineered to stop the APC from having its desired primary election. You must recall how he himself was the first to flout that gazette after defecting to the PDP. So, the main issue is the governor’s penchant for impunity to accomplish his desires. I call on stakeholders and the Federal Government to keep a very close eye on him lest he slips and breaks things again.
Another core issue is open campaigning. Why has the governor not presented a mandate for us yet? Let him present his mandate and pitch it against our mandate so that we are sure that he is not just going through the motions and planning a ballot box heist on election day.
To what extent has your team and candidate situated campaign in the context of those core issues, including citizens’ welfare?
I will take those ‘core issues’ to mean the major issues I highlighted above. First, if you are talking about the election process and the issues we may likely face, I can only appeal to anyone who can call the governor to order to do so. He does not mind bringing disgrace to the entire state. He has an agenda, and this agenda does not appear to mind about the citizenry. I don’t know if you saw how scanty his campaign rally was in Edo North. No one cares about his plans or policies. That is what we want him to take like the deep-minded man we thought him to be. If he is sure of himself, he should not try to play dirty. We have no trickery to play. We are fighting fair.
We have our mandate and we have commenced the process of sensitising people of Edo State to it. I mentioned earlier that the APC likes to know what the people want because, in the final analysis, we are here for the people. As for citizens’ welfare, that is not an issue. All you need to do is to look at the track record of Pastor Ize-Iyamu. He has empowered many people and provided scholarship for many people too. Recently, the first daughter of the late Professor Ambrose Alli noted that she saw similarities between Pastor Ize-Iyamu and her father. She was making reference to his sympathy and strength in character, which has made him a more credible leader than all the other contestants.
What comparative advantage do you believe your party and its candidate have over others in the election and why?
As I mentioned earlier, in almost every area of the election, we have the advantage. The biggest advantage we have right now is unity of purpose as a party and a people. The entire state is united behind Pastor Ize-Iyamu. This is a man that they have known for a long time. He helped lay the foundation of the party. He has empowered many people and he is a grassroots politician. We have the advantage of being a credible party with high standards and when people do not meet up to those standards, they simply cannot represent us. They may eventually go on to other parties where they can render such parties at a disadvantage and we don’t care really. We know that our candidate is much loved by the people and that is all that matters.
Furthermore, the APC is a strong party; a political heavyweight. Already, the party has a framework that has defeated all the other parties several times at both the state and federal level. We are a party with an ideology and an identity. Our ideology does not come out of a vacuum; it is the will of the people. Without the people, there will be no SIMPLE agenda. The will of the people must be reflected on the election day.
What is responsible for the wave of violence being noticed in the buildup to the poll, as some parties and candidates claimed your camp cannot absolve itself from the ugly trend? Is it a case of desperation?
The wave of violence is indeed an ugly trend and a wave of desperation, I agree; but, this wave of desperation is not from our camp and our camp knows nothing of its origins. In fact, we have perpetually been the victims of these violent attacks. As far back as 2019, thugs went to attack visitors at Adams Oshiomhole’s house. This is why I said they, as far as the use of force is concerned, we are faced with a ventriloquist. If you’re not vigilant, they will blame the violence on you. They will uproot the roof of state Assembly to prevent the legislators from sitting and then point fingers at you. They will use the extralegal force to demolish houses and businesses and level baseless allegations against you. The aim has been to goad us out of our civil and noble approach to the election. But no more of that. It is jejune to say the very least. The people know better now. We are a peace-loving party and our only concern is for the democratic conduct of a free and fair election in Edo State by September.
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