The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has claimed that Peter Obi’s strong performance in the 2023 presidential election, where he secured over 6.1 million votes, was largely driven by religious rhetoric.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Bwala also asserted that a significant portion of Obi’s online supporters, known as “Obidients,” consist of bot accounts rather than genuine human followers.
He made the comments on Thursday while responding to questions about the presidency’s frequent reactions to the former Anambra governor.
He said, “When we keep quiet, Peter Obi and his Obidients, from morning till the next morning, are talking about Asiwaju government… When we respond to them, you say we are reacting to them.”
He continued, “Peter Obi has a followership that they call the Obidients, that are largely, they consist of people that are not human beings, we call bot account. If you are very familiar with social media and the manipulation of algorithm, you will say that.
“But the real Obidients that are human beings, when you see them on the street, they are not very many.”
On Obi’s electoral performance, Bwala stated, “At that time, he used religious rhetoric. The toxicity of what he introduced in 2023 will be a long time before it leaves us as a country.”
