By Paul Williams
At least 200 volunteers, excluding comedians, support staff, vendors and ancillary service providers are expected to participate in bringing to life the 2026 edition of the Mayor of Pitakwa show held annually in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Experts say the comedy show, which has been described as Port Harcourt’s flagship entertainment event, will create as much as 250 direct jobs next year.
This represents an over 150 percent hike on the impact made by this year’s and preceding years’ editions on the Rivers economy.
The event next year, with the theme: ‘The Mayor and 12 Kings,’ will be produced by Talkholic Unlimited, under the Mayor of Pitakwa brand, with Web 3 Phone, Sollong, serving as one of the lead sponsors.
Port Harcourt-based comedian, Jornsen Jornsen, known onstage as KO Baba, said at the unveiling of the sponsor and 2026 theme in Port Harcourt on Sunday, that Sollong’s presence “signifies a bold shift towards innovation and digital empowerment, and aligns perfectly with our vision to make Mayor of Pitakwa 2026 bigger, smarter, and more connected than ever.”
Jornsen, who is the CEO and creator of Mayor of Pitakwa, said the 2026 theme derives from the push to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of comedians in Nigeria. 12 comedians in 12 cities of the country will be selected and unveiled in a run-up to the event. The cities will include Calabar, Benin, Abuja, Lagos, Yenagoa among others.
He said the 2026 edition promises to be more exciting than previous editions, draw an audience that is at least twice its current posting, create more opportunities for exposing and grooming fresh comic talents.
Jornsen expressed pride in the fact that the Mayor of Pitakwa brand, which started from the streets of Diobu, Port Harcourt, has gained international recognition, especially with the coming on board of Sollong Phones as its partner.
Commenting on putting Port Harcourt on the global Entertainment map with comedy, Jornsen said “I want Port Harcourt to be not just rated but highly so. I built this brand painstakingly from the scratch from Diobu while I lived at Number 96 Abel Jumbo Street. I began to do MC jobs (master of ceremony).
“I was seeking roles in other peoples shows but not many big boys in the industry then cared about upstarters. I then decided to create my own show series. I invited some big comedy guys like Angel D’Laff.
“I grew and went big scale and even invited AY at Atrium Event Centre on Stadium Road. I incurred huge loss and began to repay. Now, today, we are a big success, a big brand,” he said.
Jornsen described the upcoming artists in Port Harcourt as his constituency, adding that the has led him to ensuring that his shows offer them opportunity to grow, by reserving 80 percent for local artists and 20 percent for established acts.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Crypto Consulting Limited, Commander Solomon Esor (rtd), speaking for Sollong Phones, co-sponsor of the 2026 show, described the Mayor of Pitakwa brand as globally accepted.
“We saw video of his show for 2025 and we knew that was the show we want to back. We were very impressed and our foreign partners saw what we saw. So we set out to seek K.O. Baba Jornsen, the name behind the Mayor of Pitakwa, out.”
Commander Esor (rtd) said Sollong is happy to associate with the Mayor of Pitakwa brand, adding that Sollong Phones offers consumers the opportunity of earning daily from their investment.
“We have a unique phone brand and we dare say that the new world is being ruled by crypto, blockchain, web3, etc. If you are not in any of these, you are being left behind.”
He urged Rivers people to take advantage of the 1 percent daily return on investment available to those who own Sollong phones and build an investment portfolio for life.
Our correspondent gathered that Sollong is a pioneering platform that combines decentralized computing, AI, blockchain, and mobile technology to create a new paradigm for distributed AI services and Web3 infrastructure.
It fosters a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) where contributors earn rewards (in SOLG tokens) for providing computational resources.
Our correspondent reports that the unveiling event attracted potential investors, tech enthusiasts, entertainment stakeholders and the media in Port Harcourt.
