Sociopragmatic Orientations of Politeness Strategies in Chatham House Interviews of Selected Nigerian 2023 Presidential Election Candidates

Abstract

This article examines politeness strategies deployed by Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 Chatham House interviews from a pragmatic perspective. Most of the extant engagements of these interviews tended towards general features of political communication, such as rhetorical strategies, framing, and issue positioning, without an in-depth examination of sociopragmatic orientations in which the political actors employ politeness strategically to achieve their communicative objectives. Geoffrey Leech’s Politeness Principle and other pragmatic concepts served as the framework. Data were purposively gathered from the Chatham House interviews of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (December 22^nd, 2022) and Peter Obi (January 16^th, 2023), aired on YouTube (Arise TV).  Findings of the study reveal four sociopragmatically constructed politeness maxims deployed by Obi and Tinubu. These are tact, generosity, modesty, and dere-responsibilisation-oriented maxim, deployed to convince Nigerians of their abilities to deliver unifying governance and adhere to the rule of law if elected as president of Nigeria. The two presidential candidates reveal specific areas of divergence and convergence in their linguistic choices while responding to questions during the Chatham House interviews to mitigate their face and that of the audience. Sociopragmatically oriented strategies of politeness offer a great privilege to political actors’ identity. The study therefore recommends that public figures should equip themselves with politeness tactics to foreground their desired identity and project themselves as acceptable leaders in society.