Iyabo Obasanjo explains her defection from PDP to APC

Former senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello revealed that her decision to join the All Progressives Congress was largely influenced by the fact that party members were the only ones who maintained contact with her during her over 15-year absence from active politics.

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She made this disclosure on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Friday, where she also stated that she had not been a member of the PDP since 2011, when she lost her Senate re-election bid and subsequently left for a leadership fellowship at Harvard University.

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Obasanjo-Bello pursued a PhD after completing her fellowship, and she clarified that she had not been an active member or even a member at all of the PDP since 2011, saying "I had no party".

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She dismissed suggestions that her APC membership was driven by a desire to align with the ruling party, noting that she had left the PDP while it still held federal power, and could have lobbied for a federal appointment if that were her intention.

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Obasanjo-Bello attributed her APC membership to personal relationships rather than political calculation, saying the people who reached out to her during her years away from politics were all in the party.

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She emphasized that these personal relationships were the fundamental reason for her decision to join the APC, stating that it was the fact that people in the party cared about her and asked about her well-being that drew her to them.

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Obasanjo-Bello, who is seeking the Ogun State governorship on the APC platform ahead of the 2027 general election, confirmed that she formally joined the APC after participating in the party’s e-registration exercise in Ibogun, Ward 11, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.

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She said that supporters had urged her to return to politics for about two years before she made the decision, and she eventually ruled out returning to the PDP due to the party’s internal crises.

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Obasanjo-Bello also considered the African Democratic Congress but was uncertain about its readiness ahead of the elections, and she ultimately described the APC as her natural home.

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Obasanjo-Bello had previously served as Ogun State Commissioner for Health under former governor Gbenga Daniel before winning a Senate seat representing Ogun Central in 2007, and she later lost her re-election bid in 2011 to Gbenga Obadara of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

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After her loss, she returned to the United States and pursued an academic career, rising to the rank of professor, before eventually deciding to return to politics and join the APC.