Peter Obi has accused President Bola Tinubu of relying on tribal and religious sentiments because, in his view, the administration lacks the competence to win Nigerians over on performance.
The former Anambra governor’s comments have quickly reopened one of the most sensitive arguments surrounding Nigeria’s 2027 presidential race: whether the next election can be fought primarily on governance and competence, or whether ethnicity and religion will again dominate the conversation.
Obi’s current message is straightforward. Nigerians, he argues, should judge political leaders by what they can deliver rather than by their tribe or religion. He has previously urged voters not to support him simply because of his own identity, arguing that Nigeria needs a national vision that cuts across ethnic and religious divisions.
But there is an obvious political problem.
The 2023 election was itself heavily shaped by identity politics, and Obi was not outside that debate. His opponents accused him and his supporters of exploiting ethnic and religious sentiments, while Obi’s own campaign included rhetoric around the religious implications of the election. The broader election environment became deeply polarized along ethnic and religious lines, according to subsequent research into the campaign.
That history means Tinubu’s supporters are unlikely to simply accept Obi’s latest argument. Instead, old clips and statements can be used to challenge his credibility and ask whether his political strategy has genuinely changed.
That could become an important feature of the 2027 campaign.
For Obi, the opportunity is to move the conversation away from identity and towards measurable questions: inflation, jobs, security, infrastructure, education and the performance of the current administration. His supporters are already pushing this framing, arguing that competence should matter more than ethnic or religious loyalty.
For Tinubu’s camp, the counterargument will likely be that Obi cannot criticise identity politics without answering questions about how identity featured in his own 2023 campaign.
This creates a potentially more interesting contest than another round of “tribe versus tribe” politics.
Both camps may be forced to prove that their preferred candidate can win Nigerians without relying on the very divisions they accuse the other side of exploiting.
With 2027 approaching, that could make competence itself the political battleground, not simply a campaign slogan.
