By John Mayaki
Last week, at a street rally intended to motivate support in Benin, the mute candidate offered Edo people a glimpse of how he plans to govern if allowed to take power. On the vehicle that served as the platform for engagement, he was denied the center stage and relegated to a flank, where he hung heedlessly like a “motor boy.”
He was reduced to a mere spectator at an event he should have led, at the mercy of those who are cleverer and more sophisticated than him. A ‘boy-boy’ candidate, to borrow a popular local phrase.
With no mind of his own and unable to articulate a vision, he has ceded the stage and campaign to his masters and a hastily-assembled assortment of amateur spin-doctors. Their job is to provide the soundtrack for this uninspiring campaign. You can call them the Okpebholo-Whisperers if you like. Daily, they strive without success to give meaning to silence and turn reality on its head. They argue that it is not Okpebholo who is silent and dull, but rather the voters who are deaf and unable to comprehend silence.
Consider the embarrassing museum affair. When unavoidably thrust into the spotlight at an engagement event with Edo indigenes in America, the mute candidate, in his typical incoherent rambling, lamented the absence of animals in our museums. The gaffe was evident to every objective viewer. Voters recoiled in shame; members of America’s diaspora community left the event convinced that the future of the state should not be entrusted to a man who cannot grasp basic facts or string two coherent sentences together.
But the whisperers, those who claim to understand the workings of the mute candidate’s feeble mind better than he does, swung into action to reframe reality. They paraded on social media decontextualized examples of museums in other parts of the world where certain animals are housed. They missed or chose to ignore the glaring fact that the mute candidate was speaking specifically about Edo State, where animals are not kept in museums. His confusion was not a sign of profound understanding, but rather a stark reflection of his complete ignorance.
Such twisting and manipulation are the tasks assigned to these whisperers. They are the executioners of the party’s final command, as George Orwell described in his classic novel. They instruct the people to reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears. Though the mute candidate is clearly unlettered and devoid of ideas, they insist that the people must view him as an erudite scholar and philosopher. Infact, a Professor called me last week to say he’s better because he’s an “unintelligent thief” we can manage.
Although he is undoubtedly the worst candidate in the race, they demand that voters award him the highest praise and title. They do this not by providing compelling evidence of the parallel universe they reside in, but through manipulation, abuse, childish tantrums, and intimidation. It won’t work!
“We have the power of the center,” they chant daily, as if the people’s choice doesn’t matter. Weeks away from the election, the mute candidate has yet to sit down with independent journalists for the usual interviews that outline governance agendas and shed light on candidates’ journeys.
His opponents have actively engaged with the media, both traditional and digital, and presented their qualifications and achievements for public scrutiny. Both have excelled in the private sector, where men are made by the works of their hand, not the midnight convergence of godfathers. Lacking achievements to show, the mute candidate continues to dodge and deflect. His CV is “grace,” and his strategy for governance is “abundant grace.” How does grace develop a state or a country?
But the Holy Book itself has warned against this sort of foolishness. As Paul the apostle said, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” And also, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” The people must reject the call of this puppet ‘motor boy’ into a directionless vehicle.
