Two years after he tagged the 2023 presidential election a “religious war” to garner Christians’ support, Peter Obi, former Anambra governor and Labour Party presidential candidate, has urged Nigerians to shun religious sentiments and vote in support of a candidate who has the capacity and competence to lead Nigeria.

Mr Obi has often assailed the governance records of President Bola Tinubu, describing it as ruinous.

“This is time to remove our division. We have all tried. We voted religion. Let’s vote competence. Let’s vote capacity. Let’s make things work,” Mr Obi said at a coalition meeting held at the Abuja Continental Hotel on Sunday.

The meeting organised by the National Political Consultative Group was attended by opposition groups planning a coalition ahead of the 2027 election.

Lamenting insecurity, poverty, and the collapse of the country’s industrial sector, Mr Obi said, “Let’s hold our leaders responsible.”

Mr Obi’s call for the coalition to unite regardless of their religious and ethnic difference comes two years after he was exposed for whipping up religious sentiments to garner Christians votes.

“This is a religious war,” Mr Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in 2023, said in a leaked audio published by People Gazette.

In the viral audio, Mr Obi begged Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church to assist him in getting Christians in the South-West to back his presidential ambition, particularly in the central states of Kwara, Kogi, and Niger.

In the infamous leaked audio, the politician was repeatedly saying “Yes, Daddy!” to curry Mr Oyedepo’s favour.

Mr Obi’s controversial statement was a push against the All Progressives Congress’ Muslim-Muslim featuring Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima.

After Mr Obi’s divisive religious rhetoric was exposed, he publicly threatened legal actions against The Gazette but has not done so two years after. The Gazette stood by its story despite Mr Obi’s lawsuit threat.