₦airaland Forum

Former Ogun State Commissioner for Health and daughter of Ex Nigeria President, Iyabo Obasanjo, has given reasons for her defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.


Obasanjo insisted that she was not pressured or persuaded by the ruling party but left because she became uncomfortable in PDP.

Recall that she returned to active politics after about 15 years and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, ahead of the 2027 general elections in Ogun State.

She had lost her re-election bid in 2011 to the after being defeated by Senator Gbenga Obadara of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and subsequently returned to the United States to pursue her academic career, rising to the rank of a professor.

Speaking on Wednesday while featuring on Frontline, a current affairs program on Eagle 102.5 FM Ilese Ijebu and monitored by our correspondent in Abeokuta, Iyabo Obasanjo disclosed that she could have quit the party long ago but was unable to do so since her father, Olusegun Obasanjo was a party chieftain at the time.

Her words: “APC never approached me. I know there’s a lot of things out there in terms of APC, reaching out to people to join and all that. I never was approached.

“So, for me, it was, I made a choice to join. So, to kind of say, oh, APC pressured me to join and things like that, there was never anything. I analyzed the situation. For me, the primary reason was that I left (PDP) because I wasn’t comfortable in the party.

“ I could have joined the other party then, but my dad was then still a chieftain in that other party. It would be like I was joining against him. Now, he doesn’t belong to any party, he tore his party card and I’m a free agent. It wasn’t even that I wasn’t a free agent then, I could have done anything I wanted on my own. But it’s the image it presented that I was trying to avoid.

She insisted that she wasn’t pressured into making the decision and had no regrets leaving a party(PDP) where nobody cared, recounting how the party often reached out only when it needed her to mobilize support during elections, sidelining her contributions and insights in the process.

“My own situation was a decision based on analysis and based on who I am and where I feel comfortable being part of. I’m not comfortable being part of an organization that I left and nobody cared to find out why.

“And I can even tell you, it was this bad that the only time I got a call from them….. I was a senator of the federal republic and I knew the followership I had there and then the election was coming and somebody from the presidency reached out. How transactional is that? So, I dropped the phone on the person. I’m like, you only realize that there are people that can help you during elections.

“So, yes, I will never go back to that party. I just feel that at the level I left, that nobody… I don’t know if I feel betrayed, I just feel the individuals there are not people I want to associate with.

“I think they’re idiots, if you can put it that way. And I think they’re idiots because if elections are about people and if you don’t reach out to the people that are prominent in your party, how do you win elections? You can’t” she stressed.

Obasanjo argued that politics was not about using people for an end but about caring for people and carrying them along.

“And if you can’t care for people in your own leadership team, how can you care for the ordinary person on the street? she asked.

Source: https://dailypost.ng/2026/02/25/apc-never-wooed-me-pdp-betrayed-me-iyabo-obasanjo

Goodluck Jonathan did and he paid dearly for it

I remember this lady that year as a senator. She had issues with her father as president 😆. Obasanjo no send

Well, good for her.
Everybody don dey read the room.
If you want your ambition fulfilled, join the party that seems to be running away with it.

I hope the Ogun people have actually felt her impact too - she dey hammer on politics being about people - hope you sef dey deliver to your people.

Meanwhile, hope una see how the children of our past leaders seem to be the ones always coming to rule us.

She was a former Commissioner and former Senator.
Hope she left good records during those period.
Shouldn't be about using OBJs name. What did she do for her constituency,? We are seeing what Senator Natasha is doing .
Wish her best of luck.

Anywhere belle face. Na dem.

This entitled handsome woman again. It is not her fault. Nigerians deserve all that is happening to them

But she nor even fine self
Nawa obj

The countries politics is just poorly written telenovela.... You can actually predict the ending by watching just five minutes of it

APC is a sane party. U are welcome ma

This one thinks she go just reappear after all these years, then suddenly come bamboozle and carjole her way into the people's heart to elect her as Governor after abandoning them for over 15 years.

Even when the name of the family carried enormous political weight, there was no pathway for her. To take the joke further, she now wants to run on the platform of a party whose captain doesn't see eye to eye with her father. Good luck with that.

If only these people that benefitted immensely from PDP could just return the favour to the party and help rebuild it.

PDP is the only true opposition at the moment with widespread acceptability and structure.

Rexymania:
I remember this lady that year as a senator. She had issues with her father as president 😆. Obasanjo no send

She was very rude to fmr Gov gbenga Daniel who made her Commissioner and Senator.

Making the right decision shouldn’t be hard to explain. All opposition parties are gone

Nothing for you in Apc...get use to being betrayed

Politicians always have an excuse in whatever they do.

Rexymania:
I remember this lady that year as a senator. She had issues with her father as president 😆. Obasanjo no send

She had issues with her father because she was victimized by Yaradua Government because of her father. People who felt offended by OBASANJO while in power teamed up with Yaradua against OBASANJO's Ministers and appointees from South West. The issue she had as Chairman, Senate Committee on Health over the 20million naira or thereabout received from Ministry of Health under Prof Nike Grange for the committee visit to Ghana on official assignment was a great embarrassment. I witnessed Prof Nike Grange weeping profusely over the incident. There was no Ministry that didn't offer support to National Assembly committee on oversight.

They declared her wanted and sent Police to be looking for her everywhere under David Mark as Senate President. People know she was being victimized and embarrassed because they want to take the revenge of her father on her.

Rexymania:
I remember this lady that year as a senator.

She had issues with her father as president 😆. Obasanjo no send

Just another liar liar politician seeking to scam those who make themselves permanent members of Lagbaja's 200 million mumu club.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWUS1W_ITc

December 18, 2013

Iyabo Obasanjo writes father, says: ‘Dear Daddy, you don’t own Nigeria

In what is turning out to be a season of open letters, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Iyabo, has ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo in a letter to her father accused him of having an egoistic craving for power and living a life where only men of low esteem and intellect thrive.

In the 11-page letter dated December 16, 2013 exclusively obtained by Vanguard, Iyabo accused her father of orchestrating a third term for himself as president, cruelty to family members, abandonment of children and grandchildren, and also, a legendary reputation of maltreatment of women.

Iyabo who forswore further political engagements in Nigeria denied any political motive for her missive, and described Nigeria as a country where her father and his ilk have helped to create a situation where smart, capable people bend down to imbeciles to survive. She particularly noted her experience as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health when she led the committee on a retreat appropriated for in the budget only for her to be prosecuted for it.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/iyabo-obasanjo-writes-father-says-dear-daddy-dont-nigeria/

Rexymania:
I remember this lady that year as a senator. She had issues with her father as president 😆. Obasanjo no send

You're a lier. She never had any problem with her dad at anytime. I live in her consistency, my school was just directly opposite Obasanjo house then.

Tell us what problem they had if you know what you're saying.

Why is she still answering her father's name instead of her husband...

😂😂

Iyabo you are a Paper weight politician, u won the Senate seat then because your papa rigged the election for you, even 1 million of u no get weight, if u want join CPA

Thundafireseun:
She has seen the light….

Tinubu is Light

She is the best candidate for Ogun State.

TINUBU is surrounded mainly by praise singers and mediocres apart from very few people. On nairaland here, I see a lot of them. Apart from Fayose, Fashola, Gbajabiamila and very few others I don't want to mention, the rest are fair weather followers and praise singers . One thing they realized is that Asiwaju rewards friendships and followership.

We need good governance and results. YAYI doesn't have anything to offer Ogun State. YAYI and Amosun are the same just as Gbenga Daniel and Dapo are the same. Just as it's very painful to Tunde Lemo and several OGUN STATE elites, it is very painful to me to see the State in such disarray and dilapidation and dirtiest state. Whenever you are moving on State road from Lagos to Ogun, immediately you entered Ogun State road, you will know. In some places, Lagos even tried to extend the roads.

We have had fire incidents along Lagos Ibadan Expressway, at the end, it was Lagos State Fire Service that saved the day.

David Umahi should report OGUN STATE to TINUBU. All the Drainages on Lagos Ibadan Expressway are filled with Wastes. Ogun State refused to provide Waste Disposal Sites, the wheel barrow pushers have turned the drainages, bushes and Rivers to waste disposal places. Initially, in some places, Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA) was coming with With Disposal trucks once in 3 months, later once in 6 months, finally, they erected big boards with inscription "Do not dump Wastes here, defaulter will be fined =N=100,000". They did this without providing alternative.

Industries everywhere in OGUN STATE but no Government presence, just tax and the effects of the Tax is not showing.

We need people like Pastor Tunde Lemo and Prof Iyabo OBASANJO to take over the state. We need to carry out developmental audit of governance. Lagos is full already. OGUN STATE needs Masterplan for economic prosperity of the South West.

Pastor Tunde Lemo may be compromised by pressure from those businessmen and socialite past governors. Prof OBASANJO is the best choice.

Stephen0mozzy:
Well, good for her.
Everybody don dey read the room.
If you want your ambition fulfilled, join the party that seems to be running away with it.

I hope the Ogun people have actually felt her impact too - she dey hammer on politics being about people - hope you sef dey deliver to your people.

Meanwhile, hope una see how the children of our past leaders seem to be the ones always coming to rule us.

Without sentiment or bias, this is the logic but some populace don't understand this, I saw the trend long time and I kept mute because we are fighting what's not

professorPABX:
She is the best candidate for Ogun State.

TINUBU is surrounded mainly by praise singers and mediocres apart from very few people. On nairaland here, I see a lot of them. Apart from Fayose, Fashola, Gbajabiamila and very few others I don't want to mention, the rest are fair weather followers and praise singers . One thing they realized is that Asiwaju rewards friendships and followership.

We need good governance and results. YAYI doesn't have anything to offer Ogun State. YAYI and Amosun are the same just as Gbenga Daniel and Dapo are the same. Just as it's very painful to Tunde Lemo and several OGUN STATE elites, it is very painful to me to see the State in such disarray and dilapidation and dirtiest state. Whenever you are moving on State road from Lagos to Ogun, immediately you entered Ogun State road, you will know. In some places, Lagos even tried to extend the roads.

We have had fire incidents along Lagos Ibadan Expressway, at the end, it was Lagos State Fire Service that saved the day.

David Umahi should report OGUN STATE to TINUBU. All the Drainages on Lagos Ibadan Expressway are filled with Wastes. Ogun State refused to provide Waste Disposal Sites, the wheel barrow pushers have turned the drainages, bushes and Rivers to waste disposal places. Initially, in some places, Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA) was coming with With Disposal trucks once in 3 months, later once in 6 months, finally, they erected big boards with inscription "Do not dump Wastes here, defaulter will be fined =N=100,000". They did this without providing alternative.

Industries everywhere in OGUN STATE but no Government presence, just tax and the effects of the Tax is not showing.

We need people like Pastor Tunde Lemo and Prof Iyabo OBASANJO to take over the state. We need to carry out developmental audit of governance. Lagos is full already. OGUN STATE needs Masterplan for economic prosperity of the South West.

Pastor Tunde Lemo may be compromised by pressure from those businessmen and socialite past governors. Prof OBASANJO is the best choice.

Yayi has a lot to offer trust me, he has the network already but remember their are plans with timeline for development in each states, many at times we citizens just don't ask though some politicians can be overzealous as well but I can tell you for free Yayi is one of the best you can have as a governor for now.

This woman is damn ugly well she got brains Sha

adenigga:
Source: https://dailypost.ng/2026/02/25/apc-never-wooed-me-pdp-betrayed-me-iyabo-obasanjo

Nobody cares what happened then or now

I dare her to go by her Marital Surname!

Gajagojo:
Goodluck Jonathan did and he paid dearly for it

And you and the masses are still paying dearly it. Is it balanced now?

humberjade:
This one thinks she go just reappear after all these years, then suddenly come bamboozle and carjole her way into the people's heart to elect her as Governor after abandoning them for over 15 years.

Even when the name of the family carried enormous political weight, there was no pathway for her. To take the joke further, she now wants to run on the platform of a party whose captain doesn't see eye to eye with her father. Good luck with that.

That's the funny thing , tinubu does not think the way you think , infact tinubu will find her useful just to show her father who the real boss is .

The woman too resemble Serena Williams,Abi na Baba Obasanjo get ham?

benardtotti:
That's the funny thing , tinubu does not think the way you think , infact tinubu will find her useful just to show her father who the real boss is .

While I don't disagree she might be of use to him in some ways l, but never as a Governor. What is her political weight compared with those in front of her?