Former Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has revealed that her decision to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) was largely influenced by the personal support she received from members of the party during her long absence from active politics.
Obasanjo-Bello made the disclosure while speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme on Friday.
The daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo said she had not been an active member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 2011 after failing to secure re-election to the Senate.
According to her, she stepped away from partisan politics for over a decade to pursue personal and academic development, including attending a leadership programme at Harvard University and working on her PhD.
“I have not been involved with the PDP as an active member or even as a member since 2011. I don’t see it as leaving one group to join another. I had no party,” she said.
Obasanjo-Bello explained that her eventual alignment with the APC was influenced by the individuals who kept in contact with her during that period.
“The other part of it is that when I was away, the people who reached out to me, the people I was talking to, are all in the APC,” she said.
She noted that none of the current leaders in the PDP or the African Democratic Congress (ADC) reached out to her during that time.
“I don’t think anybody in the current PDP as it is, or the ADC as it’s trying to be, communicated with me or asked, ‘How are you doing?’” she added.
According to the former senator, the gestures from those who later became her political allies were not politically motivated but were simply expressions of concern.
“Yes, it’s all politics, but politicians are still human beings,” she said.
“So for me, that was the fundamental reason. People reached out to me, they were talking to me—not to lobby me, but just to say, ‘We care about you. We like you. We love you as a human being. How are you doing?’”
Obasanjo-Bello recently announced her return to partisan politics after more than 15 years away from the frontline political scene.
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