Prof. Iyabo Obasanjo — former senator, governorship aspirant and the first daughter of ex‑President Olusegun Obasanjo — has resigned from the All Progressives Congress (APC). She told the party she was leaving because of “persistent disrespect, rejection and maltreatment by the leadership of the party in Ogun State.”
Her resignation, in a letter dated May 31 to Ogun State APC Chairman Chief Yemi Sanusi, comes six months after she joined the party and barely two months after she lost the APC governorship ticket, Daily Trust reports.
Obasanjo, who represented Ogun Central from 2007 to 2011, said she was unhappy with the consensus deal that produced Senator Solomon Adeola (Yayi) as the APC’s 2027 candidate. She said the process broke party rules, though she had promised to accept a proper consensus.
“When I started the journey to get the party’s nomination for Governor, I came to see you and I said to you and everyone both privately and publicly that I will honor the party’s consensus decision once it has been made,” she stated.
She claims her supporters were kept out of the meeting where the candidate was announced. “When that day came, even as violence was perpetrated against my supporters to stop them from entering the venue, I maintained my calmness,” she said.
“At the venue, with no prior meeting with me as a candidate, given what the national party says in its guidelines on what consensus should be, a candidate was announced. “No one acknowledged my presence at the meeting given that I was the most prominent opposition to the candidate chosen and I had traversed the state mobilizing and encouraging grassroots APC support,” she added.
Still, she issued a congratulatory statement that night. “Based on my conviction that party unity is important, I wrote my letter accepting the party’s consensus candidate that night even with the flawed process,” she said.
She says Adeola later met her supporters, who made three non‑compulsory requests. “At that meeting my people made three requests which I said were not compulsory, but he should let me know so I would inform my people of his responses, and he said I should give him a week,” she stated. More than two months later she says she has heard nothing. “Unless he gets back to me after I send this letter, he has not reached out to me after two months. This is just part of the general treatment I have received from APC of disrespect and rejection as if I was not there making contributions that increased support for the party in Ogun Central and across the state,” she said.
Announcing her departure she wrote: “A famous person once said that when disrespect is the only dish served, then one should leave the table. I am therefore leaving the APC table where I am not welcomed. This is my resignation from the party.”
She did, however, thank President Bola Tinubu and some party figures for a cordial welcome. “Through you, I want to thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for receiving me warmly as usual, and I thank you and our Ogun Central Senatorial Chairman, Chief Soremi, as both of you treated me well and I will always remember that,” she wrote.
Obasanjo formally joined the APC in January 2026 by registering in Ward 11, Ibogun, Ifo LGA, marking her return to active politics after years away.
