Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello first came into political limelight as the Commissioner for Health in Ogun State between 2003 and 2007 under the administration of the then-Governor Gbenga Daniel. She later went into the Senate between 2007 and 2011, lost her re-election bid and then vanished into political oblivion when she went back to the United States.
She then resurfaced after over a decade of being in the political winter and declared her intention to contest the APC gubernatorial ticket in her native Ogun State.
She crisscrossed the Ogun East and West Senatorial Districts and had plans to tour her Central District before the party leaders informed her of their decision to produce a consensus candidate in Senator Olamilekan Adeola a.k.a. Yayi.
Who did she really think she was? Her father is, in reality, a political lightweight who couldn’t really swing the pendulum in her favour. She, herself, isn’t a political bulldozer as she got her earlier positions due to the fact that her father was the President at the time.
She then defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing the unfair treatment she suffered in the APC and announced her intention to return to the Senate next year. In her words: “When I returned to active politics, I chose to join the APC because President Bola Ahmed Tinubu treated me with great respect and dignity. He regarded me like his own daughter, gave me my rightful place, and accorded me the recognition I deserved. It was never about money; it was about respect.
“In Yorubaland, prestige and honour are often valued more than money. When you give me prestige and recognition, you earn my loyalty and respect in return.
“Nobody persuaded or begged me to join the APC. It was my people who called me back into politics. They told me that Ogun State was no longer the same as the one I left and urged me to return and contribute once again to its development. I answered that call because the people still remembered the good work I did as a Senator and as a Commissioner in Ogun State. Their support and confidence inspired my return.
“As part of the consultation process, we toured Ogun West and Ogun East and were preparing to move to Ogun Central before a meeting was suddenly called by the party leadership. According to the APC Constitution, for a consensus candidate to emerge, all aspirants are expected to engage in discussions and consultations before any decision is announced. However, when we arrived at the meeting, a consensus candidate had already been announced.
“We were informed that two aspirants from Ogun West had been persuaded to step down in support of the consensus candidate. At that point, I realized that something was wrong,”
She was given the ticket on a consensus basis – the same thing that she criticised in the APC. Can you see the stark hypocrisy?
With the PDP decimated into more than three factions, it remains to be seen how she will make a return to the Senate. What was her real impact when she was a Senator between 2007 and 2011? How did her representation at the Red Chamber improve the lot of the Man on the Clapham Omnibus?
Nigerian politicians are really all the same, and it would be extremely foolish to die in their war.
