Iyabo Obasanjo: 'As Far As I'm Concerned, PDP Has No Presidential Candidate'

Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) senatorial candidate in Ogun State, has stirred fresh conversation within her party after declaring that, as far as she is concerned, the PDP does not have a presidential candidate.

Speaking in a recent interview, Obasanjo said she could not recall being formally introduced to any PDP presidential candidate during a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting she attended. According to her, this lack of introduction means she has no basis for asking Ogun residents to vote for a name she cannot personally confirm or vouch for.

"To my knowledge, there is no PDP presidential candidate. If it's the one you mentioned, I don't know him, there's no reason for me to tell people to vote for him because at that meeting they did not actually tell us anything of the sort," she said, making clear that her comments were not a rejection of the party's national ticket, but simply a statement of her own limited exposure to it.

Rather than dwell on the national picture, Obasanjo used much of the interview to emphasize where her energy is being spent. She said her campaign is strictly built around Ogun State's governorship race, the senatorial contest she is running in, as well as House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections holding within the state. For her, these local races are what will determine whether the PDP makes gains in Ogun, regardless of how the party's presidential campaign unfolds nationally.

"I think, really it's not important, to be honest, if we have a presidential candidate or not because the focus of our campaign in Ogun State is Ogun State. I am not in this race as part of the national campaign; we are focused on our state," she added, underlining a strategy that treats the state-level contest as largely independent of whatever is happening at PDP's national level.

Her comments also touched on the possibility of a joint campaign appearance with the party's presidential candidate, should he visit Ogun State ahead of the elections. On this, Obasanjo said she has not received any formal communication from the PDP's national leadership indicating that such a visit is being planned. She added that even if such a trip were arranged, she is not confident she would take part, reiterating that her campaign priorities remain firmly rooted at the state level rather than tied to the national ticket.

"As of now, we have no information from the national office that the presidential candidate will be coming to the state. I do not believe I will be there because, again, my focus is Ogun State. I am not really focused on the national race in any shape or form," she stated.

Beyond the question of the presidential candidate, Obasanjo also weighed in on the internal challenges rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, particularly around unresolved grievances from the party's primaries. She described such internal wrangling as a normal feature of political competition, noting that it is standard practice for parties to try to attract dissatisfied members from rival camps in the aftermath of primaries.

"Isn't that the game in politics? Isn't that what politics is all about? It is the job of everybody to keep their internal people together," she said.

She went further to offer her own view on how political parties should manage the fallout from contested primaries, arguing that a sense of belonging often matters more than material incentives when it comes to keeping aggrieved members loyal to the party.

"Sometimes it's not money. Sometimes it's just this feeling that you are part of something. Politics is being part of a group and knowing that that group has your interests at heart," she explained.

Obasanjo's remarks come at a time when questions around PDP's presidential candidacy continue to generate debate among party members and observers, even as state-level campaigns across Nigeria intensify ahead of the polls. Her comments suggest that for candidates like her, the party's national leadership question may matter far less than securing victories closer to home.