Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, the United States–based daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, came visiting Nigeria. An academic, she appeared to be on sabbatical and decided to spend it as an elected leader in the country.
Ms. Obasanjo had been out of the political scene for fifteen years. So, she dropped in like a political exile but with a firm demand to be governor of Ogun State.
The mandate she stood on was a claim that the people of the state demanded her recall to lead them at this critical period. She emphasized that she was answering a sacred call: “I am back because the people of Ogun State asked for my return.” She did not present any evidence of such a call or how it was done; was it through a referendum, petition, mass rally, short message service, dream or some clairvoyance?
If she had asked, I would have suggested that she investigate whether “the people” who called her were the masses or political hustlers. That is, people who think she should on-load some of the dollars she had made in the last decade and a half for them to eat Ofada rice.
There is hunger and palpable anger in the land, so a saviour flying from ‘The States’ to rescue her “people” should ordinarily be introspective and analytical in choosing the political party she wants to use as vehicle for the actualization of her peoples’ emancipation. Should it be one of the opposition parties that do not see a future in the continued reign of the ruling party, or the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which has promised ‘Renewed Hope’ for another four years?
But her choice, going by her confession, was rather indiscreet: “Most of those I have worked with and had positive experiences with are now in APC, and that informed my choice.” Madam, are you serious? Your choice of a political party with which you want to rescue your people was not based on shared ideology, principles or vision? You were not interested in the track record of the party that was formed during your absence from the country? Coming from an academic, this is incredible.
Given the track record of the APC with a tradition of imposition, Obasanjo would have been expected to know better than to assume the primaries would be an open contest in which the will of the party members would prevail. A cursory study of politics since the return to civil rule in 1999 reveals some streak of political guardianship in the current leaders of the APC. This is a conclave of progressive politicians who say they mean well for the polity by appointing candidates that they assume would deliver good governance. This was mainly why President Tinubu was the preferred candidate of the elders who ran the Alliance for Democracy, AD, for the 1999 Lagos State gubernatorial elections. He in turn has since then picked the candidates in the state who have been governor: Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and, if all goes well, the ‘in-coming’ 2027 governor, Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat.
So, Obasanjo was aware there would be no level playing field in the Ogun State APC gubernatorial primaries. Therefore, when she said: “For me, I’m joining the race because I think it’s open. Nothing is impossible. I’ve been in politics, so I’m not naïve,” it was tongue-in-cheek. I agree she is not naïve; she just thought that the godfathers of the party would pick her over their anointed candidate, Senator Olamilekan Adeola.
This may reveal something about her character: some Machiavellian streak. But what was her confidence based on? It cannot be money because the party leaders she was dealing with are far richer than her, and she is not even a known big spender in politics. It cannot be her academic qualifications, for there are many better qualified and more experienced. In any case, educational qualifications don’t matter. In fact, under the Electoral Act, forgery of educational qualifications cannot be the basis for disqualifying a candidate. Also, it cannot be for her oratorial powers, because she is not among the numbered.
It cannot be for past services because her two public offices have been as a commissioner in Ogun State and a controversial senator of the Federal Republic. The only thing I think she could leverage on is that her father, President Olusegun Obasanjo, was twice Head of State, her mother, Mrs. Oluremi Obasanjo, was twice First Lady, and she herself has been twice First Daughter.
These, in my view, were her principal qualifications for being appointed a commissioner and her election or selection as senator.
President Obasanjo was so powerful as president that few people dared cross his path. Even after his presidency, he remained so powerful that when his daughter was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in 2008 over alleged case of embezzlement, she declined the invitation. Even when the two ministers indicted along with her were taken to court, she refused to appear in court and there was nothing anybody or institution could do about it. When, finally, the security services summoned enough courage to effect her arrest, at least to restore some of their dignity, she jumped the fence of her Maitama, Abuja home to freedom. The case was eventually thrown out of the High Court in 2009 for lacking merit. She claimed the whole case was blackmail because she was the former President’s daughter.
This time, she claimed that she was running fully on her own steam without any influence from her father and independent of her family connections.
But the APC leaders were not deceived. They knew better than to empower Iyabo whose father had historically showed them “shege” or “pepper.” President Obasanjo had decided to remove then-Governor Bola Tinubu as Lagos State governor by imposing a state of emergency on the state. Only Tinubu’s stubbornness and threat to make the entire country ungovernable seemed to have saved him. So, when the AD elders decided in 2003 that its six state governors back Obasanjo for re-election, only Tinubu refused, and he ended up being the only one re-elected governor. The other AD state governors like Aremo Olusegun Osoba, who supported Obasanjo, later discovered they had walked into a trap and lost their re-election. Now, in 2026, how Iyabo Obasanjo thought the APC godfathers like Tinubu and Osoba would endorse her gubernatorial ambition baffles me. Did a seer assure her that he could mesmerize them?
So, her planned political sabbatical in the country was over before it even started. She was an APC member for 124 days before throwing in the towel. Farewell, Sister Iyabo.
