Former Ogun State Commissioner for Health and daughter of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Iyabo Obasanjo, has explained why she dumped the Peoples Democratic Party for the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Iyabo, who lost her 2011 re-election bid after she was defeated by Senator Gbenga Obadara of the then Action Congress of Nigeria, later returned to the United States where she pursued an academic career and became a professor.
She spoke on Wednesday, the 25th of February, 2026, during an appearance on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, monitored in Abeokuta.
She said her exit from the PDP did not happen overnight. According to her, she had considered leaving years ago but held back because her father was still a leading figure in the party at the time.
She dismissed claims that the APC lured or pressured her to defect.
“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 maintained that her decision was personal and deliberate, stressing that she has no regrets about quitting a party she said showed little concern about her absence.
Iyabo recounted that party leaders only contacted her when elections approached and they needed her support base.
“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.
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“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.
She argued that politics should go beyond seeking support during campaigns. For her, leadership requires genuine engagement and loyalty within party ranks before reaching out to voters.
“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.