{"id":27218,"date":"2022-05-07T06:03:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T06:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=27218"},"modified":"2022-05-07T06:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T06:03:43","slug":"is-nigeria-ready-for-peter-obi-by-austin-tam-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=27218","title":{"rendered":"Is Nigeria ready for Peter Obi? By: Austin Tam-George.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I served as Commissioner for Information in a PDP government in Rivers State a few years ago, but I was not a member of the party. In fact, I have never been a member of any political party in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Do not\u00a0 blame me for this.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">For anyone watching from outside, politics in Nigeria may seem like a peep into a dimly-lit psychiatric ward, where the inmates cannibalize one another in a deadly struggle for the Warden&#8217;s key.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But in this election season that has brought all kinds of people to the market square, Mr Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, appears to have seized the popular imagination.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In an era of vulgar political exhibitionism, Mr Obi projects himself as a frugal, disciplined and thoughtful contender for the high office he seeks.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">When he talks about public policy, Peter Obi speaks with an infectious earnestness of purpose that is not only rare in Nigerian politics, but in African political and developmental conversations.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">You could tell where he stands on the important issues, because on a sector by sector basis, Mr Obi speaks about his ideas in clear, programmatic and actionable terms.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Secondly, by most accounts, Peter Obi left a decent record of service in Anambra State during his time as governor.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I have overheard sensible people complain about Peter Obi&#8217;s soft and &#8221; feminine&#8221; voice, and they tend to\u00a0 mock the &#8216;simplicity &#8216; of his clothing.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This is laughable because, like most Nigerians, I doubt that the\u00a0 acute security and economic problems that\u00a0 have beset the country would suddenly disappear because of the seductive baritone of the next President.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In fact, from a communication standpoint, the tone of Peter&#8217;s voice and the consistent modesty of his physical appearance actually reinforce his authenticity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Politics may be about a contest for power,\u00a0 but for Peter Obi,\u00a0 it is also about the ability to mobilize the power of\u00a0 semiosis to convey a consistent message\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0 a message of simplicity,\u00a0 native intelligence and connection with everyday people.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This is why despite attending Colombia, Oxford, Harvard and other Ivy league universities around the world, Mr Obi continues to speak and\u00a0 present himself as Peter Obi, from Anambra State, not Abraham Lincoln lite.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Despite being a billionaire entrepreneur, Peter Obi caries himself with quiet, unobtrusive dignity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">For decades, Mr Obi has conducted his philanthropy in education with the resilience of a lonely soldier ant. He has spent billions of his own money, building schools and sending abandoned children across the country back to school.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In the coming weeks, Mr Obi&#8217;s political destiny will be decided in the party primaries, by politicians with acute allergy for good governance, in the Peoples Democratic Party. (PDP).<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u00a0Is Nigeria ready for Peter Obi?<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211; Dr Austin Tam-George is a former Commissioner for Information,\u00a0 Rivers State.<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I served as Commissioner for Information in a PDP government in Rivers State a few years ago, but I was not a member of the party. In fact, I have never been a member of any political party in Nigeria. Do not\u00a0 blame me for this. For anyone watching from outside, politics in Nigeria may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1789],"class_list":["post-27218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-peter-obi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/PETER-OBI.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-750","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27220,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27218\/revisions\/27220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}