Peter Obi has warned young Nigerians not to let ethnicity, religion or identity be used to pull them into the politics of 2027, saying the country’s future will belong to people who refuse division and choose competence, governance and national development instead.
He delivered the warning in an open letter posted on Wednesday through his X handle, placing the message squarely in the middle of the next presidential cycle and signaling that the arguments now forming online may shape the campaign ahead.
Obi said the pattern was already familiar. After the 2023 elections, especially in Lagos, public debate shifted away from leadership and development and toward tribal and identity-based sentiment, he said, after conversations that should have focused on competence and performance were redirected by people with little to offer beyond fault lines.
That is why his warning landed so pointedly. Obi said politicians who lack ideas, results or vision often reach for ethnicity and religion because a divided public is easier to manipulate than a united one. He said the same tactic is returning in subtler form as 2027 draws closer, with younger Nigerians now being singled out as the people most likely to be recruited into spreading anger and division.
He also stepped into a separate online dispute around Enoch Adeboye, describing the 84-year-old cleric as a respected faith leader who has consistently preached peace, love and unity. Obi said it was unfair to expect the church leader to carry responsibilities that belong to younger Nigerians, a direct response to online debates pressing religious leaders to take a more aggressive public stance on insecurity.
Claims about Adeboye’s past involvement in protests have resurfaced online in recent days, and the church has previously dismissed such narratives as misrepresentations. Obi did not engage the rumor directly, but his defense drew a line between public expectation and personal responsibility, saying the task of building a better Nigeria rests with the youth, not with an aging cleric already known for preaching restraint.
His message now sits inside a larger political moment. President Bola Tinubu is expected to face major challengers in the 2027 presidential race, including Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress and Obi himself of the NDC, and the fight for young voters is already beginning around the language of ethnicity, faith and identity. Obi’s warning is that those lines will be used again, and that this time the people being targeted are the ones who will decide whether they work.
