Amid ongoing public reactions surrounding the appearance of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi at the prestigious Institute of Foreign Affairs, popularly known as Chatham House, renowned political analyst, Dr. Sam Amadi has come out to assess the impact of the just-concluded event on the minds of some electorate who are yet to make up their minds on which presidential candidate deserves their vote in the upcoming polls.
Recall that Obi and his campaign team stormed Chatham House in the United Kingdom on Monday, January 16, 2023, where he had been invited to speak on what he intends to do to solve Nigeria’s myriad challenges if he is elected into office. As expected, his performance at the event has since elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians across various social media platforms.
However, while assessing the event during an interview on ARISE TV’s ‘News Night’ Dr. Amadi argued that Obi’s performance at Chatham House was so good that it could impact the decision of some undecided voters in the country.
According to the renowned political analyst, the former Anambra governor spelled out his intentions on how he will tackle critical issues in such a lucid manner, especially when compared with that of two other frontline candidates.
He said; “Political theory tells us that people vote based on policy and identity. In fact, on the issue of identity, they tend to ask what kind of people are we? With that, sometimes people gloss over policy. But, what I think is that if there are people watching Peter Obi and are asking, “can this guy really be presidential? Can he get this job done?” Or maybe they have doubts and are therefore sitting on the fence, Obi’s performance at the Chatham House would probably sway them.
And what I saw the most and liked in his performance is something that was talked about by Jim Collins called ‘Level 5 Leadership’, which is humility and firmness. When Obi talked about fighting the corrupt system, there was this element of firmness and fearlessness. And then, there was the element of humility which is about learning and working together. So, I would think that if there are people who are doubting his articulacy, his capacity, and whether he understands the issues, I think he did well.”
