Iyabo Obasanjo

Early life and education

Obasanjo attended Corona School in Victoria Island, Lagos, Capital School in Kaduna, and Queen's College in Lagos. She obtained a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Ibadan in 1988, a master's degree in epidemiology from University of California, Davis in Davis, California, United States, in 1990, and a PhD in the same subject from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1994.

Political career

Before her senatorial election, Obasanjo was Ogun State Commissioner for Health. She ran for re-election April 2011 on the PDP platform, but was defeated by Olugbenga Onaolapo Obadara of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), who gained 102,389 votes to Obasanjo Bello's 56,312.{{cite web |access-date=5 May 2011

Senate career

Obasanjo was elected to the Senate on 28 April 2007 on a People's Democratic Party (PDP) platform; her Action Congress (AC) opponent Remilekun Bakare challenged this outcome, but the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal upheld her victory.

She was the Chairman of the Senate's Health Committee, and a member of the Security & Intelligence, Land Transport, Science & Technology, Education, National Planning, and Inter-Parliamentary Committees. She lost her seat during the National Assembly Elections on 9 April 2011.

Her political reign finally came to a halt in 2015 when she was ‘crushed’ by Senator Gbenga Obadara who snatched the Ogun Central Senatorial district from her.

Assassination attempt

In April 2003, on the day of the general elections her car was shot at on Ifo Road in Ogun State. Although she was not in the car, 3 adults and 2 children in the car died. The perpetuators were never caught.

EFCC investigation

In April 2008, Obasanjo came under investigation by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) due to the investigations involving the former minister of health, Prof. Adenike Grange, and the minister of state for health, Gabriel Aduku, for the embezzlement of public funds. The ministry at the end of the financial year did not return all unspent funds to the government coffers. The amount was 300 million Naira, which was allegedly distributed among the minister, her minister of state and top civil servants on the Senate and House health committee she chairs. The minister and her deputy were forced to resign after returning their share of the money; they were later arrested and posted bail. Obasanjo refused to return her portion of this money, 10 million naira. She claimed that the nine members of her committee "lobbied" for funds from the ministry they oversaw. She maintained this money was spent on a conference on capacity building some members of the health committee attended in Ghana. She has so far refused to appear before the EFCC. Although summoned, along with the minister and other civil servants, she refused to appear in court. A week later a high drama ensued when officials of the EFCC tried to arrest her at her home in the Maitama district of Abuja city, after several simultaneous stake outs by law enforcement officials that had her jumping over her fence to evade arrest by Nigerian law enforcement officers. In 2009 the case was thrown out of the High Court in Abuja as having no merit.

Obasanjo described the allegation as "blackmail", and said she was being targeted because she was the daughter of the former president.

Post-senate career

In 2018, a letter from Obasanjo to her father in 2013 resurfaced following a statement sent by her father to President Muhammadu Buhari, which she blamed on supporters of the Buhari administration. She also urged the Buhari administration to heed her father's advice and not seek re-election.

Academic career

She worked in Clinical Research in the US before returning to Nigeria in 2003. she was a Fellow and for 2013 a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative. She is currently an assistant professor at the College of William & Mary Department of Health Sciences. Her noted works include:

Personal life

Obasanjo married Oluwafolajimi Akeem Bello in September 1999. The couple separated after Obasanjo filed for divorce on 19 May 2003. They both have one child; Jimi Bello born on 1 January 2000 in Chatham County, North Carolina.

References

References

1. Obi, Rita. (29 March 2005). "Obasanjo's first love". The Sun Publishing.
2. "Iyabo Obasanjo lies low - The Nation Newspaper".
3. "Profile". Iyabo 4 Senate.
4. "Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello". [[National Assembly of Nigeria]].
5. Obasanjo-Bello, Iyabo. "List of 2012 Fellows". Harvard University – Advanced Leadership Initiative.
6. Obasanjo-Bello, Iyabo. (2013). "Open Letter to My Father".
7. Larewaju, Kolade. (11 December 2007). "Election tribunal upholds Obasanjo-Bello's election". Vanguard Online.
8. (2020-03-27). "Where is Iyabo Obasanjo? - The Nation News Nigeria".
9. "Iyabo Obasanjo".
10. (23 April 2003). "Four Die as Gunmen Shoot at Obasanjo's Daughter". Africa News Service.
11. Osinbajo, Yemi. (2009). "The State of Criminal Justice - Tenth Justice Idigbe Memorial Lecture".
12. Ahemba, Tume. (25 March 2008). "Two Nigerian ministers resign over graft charges". [[Reuters]].
13. Human Rights Watch. (2011). "Corruption on Trial?: The Record of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission".
14. Okon, Patrick Ene. (2018). "Comparative Analysis of Mass Media Coverage of the Fight Against Corruption in Nigeria by the Obasanjo and Buhari Administrations". International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences.
15. Owasanye, Bolaji. (2014). "Justice or Impunity: high profile corruption cases crawling or gone to sleep". Human Development Initiatives.
16. (20 December 2007). "…It's Pure Blackmail, Says Ex-President's Daughter". Leaders & Company.
17. (27 January 2018). "Iyabo Obasanjo speaks on her father's 'letter' to Buhari". [[Premium Times]].
18. Obasanjo-Bello, Iyabo. "List of 2013 Fellows". Harvard University – Advanced Leadership Initiative.
19. "William & Mary - Iyabo Obasanjo". [[College of William & Mary]].
20. "Iyabo Obasanjo".
21. Daily Post Staff. (2011-12-02). "Iyabo Obasanjo's Ex-Husband Marries Again".