The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has said the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Obi, should wean himself off religious and ethnocentric issues if he wants to be relevant politically.
ACF Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, made the remark while reacting to the leaked conversation between Obi and Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church.
In the leaked conversation, Obi had urged Oyedepo to admonish his members and Christians to vote for him during the last election.
However, Aliyu reminded Obi that the immediate past United States, US, government failed when the Evangelicals supported him.
He noted that those with ethnic or religious sentiments are unlikely to rule Nigeria.
According to Aliyu: “On the leaked video, even though the matter is dying now, the trust is that there is nobody that can rule this country under certain ethnic or religious sentiments and succeed.
“Nigeria is a complex country, and anybody with such an agenda from which every part of the country or religion is unlikely to succeed because it will be glaring.
“It is not only here in Nigeria, you could see what the downfall of Donald Trump became when the evangelicals supported him.
“I think if Peter Obi wants to continue to be relevant in Nigerian politics, he should wean himself of these religious or ethnocentric issues and become a Nigerian in person and in politics.”
Aliyu charged religious leaders to refrain from using the pulpit to campaign, adding that they should advise their people to pick good leaders.