Mariam Adebukola 
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has been in the eye of the storm following the recent leaked audio conversation between him and Bishop Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church Worldwide.
The ‘Yes Daddy’ leaked video saga had got many Nigerians talking on Social media as to what the actual intention of the audio conversation with the renowned Bishop was in the build-up to the 20223 presidential elections.
New Telegraph had on Monday reported that the Federal Government through the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed challenged Obi to clarify the leaked audio conversation after he (Obi) said the audio is fake.
Recall that after the emergence of the leaked audio, the former Governor took an unusual break from Twitter before appearing days later to congratulate Chinalurumogu Eze for winning the 2023 Future Creative Leaders Academy (FCLA) Prize for the Roger Hatchuel Student Academy.
Upon his return, has been going back and forth on the Yes Daddy leaked audio conversation despite the calls out by eminent Nigerians.
Peter Obi who has changed the narration of the just concluded election with the confusion of votes and results he amassed in different categories of the polls has seven senators-elect and 34 House of Representatives-elect waiting to be inaugurated to his credit.
It is no secret that the majority of these lawmakers rode on Obi’s back to win their respective seats.
Despite having no structure and losing the presidential poll in what political pundits described as a controversial manner, Obi’s victory, especially in Lagos, was an earthquake that many did not see coming.
His message of transparency and accountability reverberated well with the youth population of the Millennial and Gen-Z under the umbrella of the Obidient Movement.
Aside from decimating the stronghold of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-East and South through his fairy-tale run in the poll, his ‘happy-ending’ ambition was however cut short by the deluge of results from the North-West and North-East, which proved to be his Achilles heel.
The standard bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was declared the eventual winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Obi who garnered 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes at the poll respectively.
But Atiku and Obi repudiate the results announced by INEC, with each claiming at separate press conferences that the election was fraught with violence and massive rigging.
A teary Obi, who felt INEC did not do justice to the results by failing to show the results in real-time, announced to a number of political programmers that he would reclaim his ‘stolen’ mandate by going to the court as being directed.
A first-timer viewer, who was just seeing some of the television interviews he had, can see through his pain, anguish and agony even as he struggled to address certain allegations about running a political campaign that was thriving in religiosity and ethnicity.
His Vice Presidential Candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, also came under fire last month when he was featured on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ and made some comments considered incendiary.
The North-West politician had warned the President, Muhammadu Buhari not to hand over to the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on May 29, otherwise, it would signal the ‘end of democracy.’
A furious Baba-Ahmed also stated that the INEC certificate of return issued to the president-elect by INEC was a ‘dud cheque’ that remains null and void.
According to him, the call for the cancellation of the poll was necessitated by the fact that Tinubu failed to hoard 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory, which was one of the prerequisites needed before a winner of the presidential election can be declared announced.
The statement by the LP vice presidential candidate consequently cost the TV station a fine of N5m by the National Broadcasting Corporation.
The penalty was spurred by a petition written to NBC by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, who felt the station didn’t do enough to stop Baba-Ahmed
The N5m penalty came at a period when the Defence Headquarters and the Directorate of State Service had raised the alarm about the activities of some political elements pushing for the cancellation of the May 29 handing over ceremony while an interim national government to be put in place by the outgoing administration.
While the legal proceeding at the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal had yet to start, the drama took a twist following a leaked phone conversation purportedly between Obi and the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo.
Clearly, one can easily tell that the discussion in the alleged audio must have happened a few days before the February 25 presidential poll.
In the viral audio, the LP poster boy was heard pleading with Oyedepo to help sway the full support of Christians in the South-West and Kwara State.
While stating that he was already working on winning votes in Kogi and Niger states, the former Anambra governor allegedly described the 2023 presidential election as a “religious war” that must be won in the purported conversation.
The fiery brand preacher was heard saying, “In Jesus’ name, we are going to get a bright tomorrow.”
In response, an emotional Obi replied, “Amen Daddy. When I hear these prayers, it is very dear to me and like I keep saying, if this thing works, you people will never regret the support.”
Continuing the conversation, the cleric said, “We look forward to God’s intervention,” to which the Labour Party candidate quickly responded, “Thank you, Daddy. Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the Southwest and Kwara. The Christians in the Southwest and Kwara. This is a religious war.”
Kenneth OkonkwoAlthough one of Obi’s spokespersons, partially admitted that the conversation happened, he argued that it was doctored to fit the narrative that the LP standard bearer is a religious and ethnic bigot.
Another aide of Obi, Valentine Obienyem specifically claimed that ‘our Nnewi prodigal brother’ is responsible for the leak. To date, the Nnewi brother has yet to be unmasked.
A former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, who was one of Obi’s biggest critics, relished the moment.
For weeks, the social media influencer made a series of satirical tweets to mock the former governor who he repeatedly called a ‘liar’ and a ‘desperate’ politician.
