In a recent interview on the “Mic On podcast” hosted by journalist Seun Okinbaloye, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, accused the 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, of inflaming religious and ethnic passions during his campaign. Onanuga claimed that Obi’s supporters are desperate to see the downfall of the Tinubu administration.
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“What I know about the campaign of Obi was that for the first time in a very long while in our country, we had a candidate, who was inflaming ethnic passions. That was the way the election went at that time. He was inflaming ethnic passions, religious passions, bringing two dangerous dimensions to our politics – ethnicity and religion,” Onanuga said.
The presidential aide also alleged that some people, whom he traced to the Obidient movement, were happy about the naira’s downward trend. When asked if he believed the Obidient movement wanted the Tinubu government to fail, Onanuga responded, “Of course, it is clear.”
However, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, the Chief Spokesman for the Obi/Datti 2003 Presidential Campaign, countered Onanuga’s claims, advising him to stop insulting the collective intelligence of Nigerians. Tanko argued that Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were the worst culprits when it came to inflaming ethnic and religious passions, citing examples such as the “Emilokan, Yoruba lokan” and Muslim/Muslim ticket battle cries used during the elections.
Tanko challenged Onanuga to provide evidence to prove that Obi incited ethnic or religious tensions, and debunked claims that Obi was working against Tinubu’s government. “Mr. Obi has moved on since the election results were ‘grabbed, snatched and ran away with. His focus in all his engagements in private and in public has always been that of nation-building. Mr. Obi will not shy away from playing his role as a leading opposition figure when those who grabbed power are failing and forcing Nigerians to suffer unjustly,” Tanko said.
The exchange between the presidential aide and Obi’s campaign spokesperson highlights the ongoing tensions and political divisions in the aftermath of the 2023 Nigerian presidential election.
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