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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the daughter of former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has assured that her father and other people will vote for her if the All Progressives Congress (APC) give her ticket as the candidate of the party in the forthcoming 2027 Ogun governorship election.
She spoke to newsmen on the sidelines after visiting the national headquarters of the APC on Monday to officially join the ruling party.
Iyabo insisted that she has every conviction of clinching the APC ticket to become the first elected female governor in the country.
Asked why she opted for APC, a party her father is not supporting, she replied: “He is not part of my coming here today. It is my person decision, he is just another citizen that will vote for me.”
“So, he has not presented me any platform. Like I said, I made an informed decision to choose APC. And the reason I chose APC is personal to me.
“In that, when I left active politics, the people that reached out to me are now all currently in APC. It is personal. If you are not, why would I join a party that people did not care about me to say, how are you?
“They are now all in different parties. But most of the people that I had positive experiences with are now in APC. So this has nothing to do with my father.
“As I said, he will vote for me, I am sure. But other than that, he is not part of my movement. He is not anything other than he will vote in the state, and hopefully I will be his governor,” she said.
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On the chances of her clinching the ticket, she said:
“There is a bill, fully supported by the APC, in which there will be reserved seats for women in the National Assembly.
So that is a positive. I am a research Professor, and I have looked at women in politics and how they affect health. My area was mostly health.
“In the reserved seats, it’s very popular in East Africa, not so much in West Africa. Actually, the fact that Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in politics was due to reserved seats.
“So the APC’s push on that bill gives me the confidence that the APC is the party that will produce the first female governor in Nigeria that is elected in office.
“With that push, that push has never been as strong as this, any time. I see billboards just telling the world, I see advertisements on TV just telling the world that this is a bill that must be passed. I am confident that if there’s a time for a woman to emerge, this is the time.
“And I’m also confident that if there’s a place that should emerge, it should be Ogun state. Given our history of women activism, from Mrs. Ransom Kuti to Madam Tinubu, who moved from Abeokuta to Lagos to be a trader, women in our culture are strong and are given lots of responsibilities. So, I am confident that this is the time.
“That is my confidence, that I think that everything’s been aligned. The other part where I have confidence is that what I’ve done in the past. Like I mentioned, and my brother mentioned that he was one of the people that came and talked to me several times,” she said.
