Nigerians rejected Obi because of ethnic, religious bigotry - APC

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has said the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi lost the just-concluded presidential election because he anchored his campaigns on ethnic and religious sentiments.

This was contained in a statement by the Director, Media & Publicity of the APC-PCC, Bayo Onanuga, on Thursday, March 2, 2023.

Recall the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu winner of the hotly-contested election as Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finished second while Obi came third.

But, addressing a world press conference earlier on Thursday, the Labour Party candidate rejected the outcome of the election, claiming widespread manipulation and fraud perpetrated by the electoral commission denied him a victory.

Responding to Obi's claim, Onanuga said the former Anambra State governor could not have won under any circumstances, adding that Nigerians rejected him because of his alleged ethnic and religious rhetorics.

The statement partly read: "We want to state again for the umpteenth time that Mr. Obi didn't win the presidential election and could not have won under any circumstances. This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society.

'Mr. Obi anchored his presidential campaign on the failed strategy of ethnicity and religion, the divisive and dangerous politics that has hobbled the progress of our country for decades. Nigerians simply rejected an ethnic and religious bigot through their ballots.

"Mr. Obi all through his campaign presented himself as the candidate of the Christians and the Church, who wanted to help ‘take back their country” from the Nigerian Muslims.

"His campaign also ran on the engine of ethnicity, inflaming strong Igbo sentiments. He also sought to cash in on the supposed youth discontent in Nigeria, as fuelled by the ENDSARS protest in 2020."