The Travails of Iyabo Obasanjo

When it rains, it pours. That must be the frame of mind of Iyabo Obasanjo as all sorts of tribulations have afflicted her since May 2007. This was not how the script was written! She had been elected a Senator in the 2007 general elections. Upon the inauguration of the Senate, she had being named Chair of the Senate Health Committee. She is also a member of other committees-Security and Intelligence, Land Transport, Science and Technology, Education, Inter-Parliamentary and National Planning. Before her election to the Senate (some dispute that she won a free contest in the Abeokuta Senate race), she had been the Ogun State Commissioner for Health and an influential participant in Ogun State and national politics. It was not part of the plan that Iyabo Obasanjo would be a wanted person, sought by the EFCC to face allegations of corruption before a Federal High Court. No, that was not the plan!

She is the powerful daughter of the departing ex-President who by virtue of his position as Chairman of the ruling party’s Board of Trustees was billed to continue in control of the party, and perhaps government. She had probably known President Umaru Yar’adua from childhood. Remember that while her father was Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters-in effect the Prime Minister of Nigeria from 1975 to 1976, President Yar’adua’s elder brother was Federal Minister for Transport, and indeed it got better. Her father moved into Dodan Barracks as Head of State, from 1976 to 1979 after the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed, and President Yar’adua’s elder brother, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’adua became his deputy. She was unlikely, the scriptwriters must have reasoned to be in any danger under such a Presidency?

When we first knew her she was known as Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, married to a certain Mr Akeem Bello who she had married in September 1999 before she had absorbed the full implications of her family’s returned to fame and power a few months earlier. In the period since her father last controlled the reigns of power in 1979, she had grown from childhood, had secured a first class education and had actually gotten to the pinnacle of educational attainment earning a Doctorate in 1994. Iyabo is not an intellectual light weight. She attended the best schools locally and internationally-Corona School, Victoria-Island, Capital Schools, Kaduna, University of Ibadan where she graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1988, and Cornell University in New York where she earned her PhD in epidemiology in 1994.

If her father had died in Abacha’s prison or had come out of prison to a private life like General Gowon or Alhaji Shagari, we probably would not have known anything about Iyabo. She would probably have remained in the United States; she may have remained the quiet intellectual pursuing a distinguished research, medical or academic career; she may have remained married to Mr Bello; and she most probably would not have had anything to do with politics. When I observed Iyabo at some relatively close quarters as recently as early in 2003, she was still that quiet, even shy doctor. I thought she still had some of her baby fat on her even! But then power changeth all things!!!

Soon thereafter, she became Health Commissioner in Ogun State, and her rise to power, fame, (and now seeming notoriety) began. First, she displaced her brother, Gbenga as her father’s anointed child. Next it became clear that she was a major decision maker in Ogun State politics. She floated her “Iyaniwura” organisation and began to plan for the Senate. The previous occupant of that position, Senator Ibikunle Amosun who on his own was quite close to the Obasanjo household, was encouraged to seek the governorship, all designed it now appears clear, to create a vacancy for Iyabo to fill. In the end, Amosun was left in the lurch and Iyabo took his seat on a platter of gold. Or rather, not quite. Our friend, Lanre Tejuoso expressed interest in the same office. He was quickly discouraged, as a curious EFCC indictment surfaced against him. Lanre’s stay in the Senate race after that point became more muted as it became clear that nothing was going to stand in the way of the first daughter’s climb to the Senate. There are also those who claim that Mr Fola Adeola’s loss of his position as Transcorp CEO and National Pension Commission Chair had something to do with an interest in that same Senate seat.

Anyway come May 2007, Iyabo duly took her seat in the Senate. Since then she has known no rest! In April 2003, a reported armed robbery attack on Iyabo’s convoy had left her orderly, Corporal Dideon Duniya, and two children dead. The widow of the orderly continues to complain that all promises by Iyabo and her father to take care of the education of her four children remain unfulfilled. In divorce proceedings with Mr Bello, the court in the US had apparently granted custody of the only child of the short-lived marriage, Jimi, to her estranged husband. Apparently Iyabo would have none of that. She is reported to have illegally taken the child and fled to Nigeria. As a consequence, according to reports seen on the web, a district judge, Charles T.L Anderson has issued an arrest warrant against the Senator, mandating local, state and international law enforcement to commit Iyabo to custody if seen. The Judge specifically directed her commitment to the Chatham County Jail, Pittsboro, North Carolina if apprehended.

Prior to the April 2007 elections, the Abia State Government under Orji Kalu rushed through an indictment of Iyabo and other pro-Obasanjo politicians in an ‘Aba made’ version of the ridiculous EFCC indictment with which the Obasanjo government sought to keep out its enemies, principally Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the 2007 general elections. If this was comic relief however, subsequent judicial encounters Iyabo has had since then have not quite been very funny. First it was the “Damilola Akinlawon” saga in which it appears Iyabo travelled to Austria to execute documents to cement a business relationship with M. Schneider GMBH posing as Damilola Akinlawon. That company subsequently won power contracts with the Nigerian government, which were revoked once Iyabo and other local partners fell out with the Austrians. Some believe that the removal of Nuhu Ribadu from the EFCC was related to his apparent reluctance to prosecute his benefactor’s daughter.

Iyabo’s current travails are however the most serious. She has been charged for corruptly receiving N10million from the Ministry of Health from proceeds of funds illegally diverted from the Ministry’s accounts. She has been declared wanted by the EFCC which says she is ‘at large’. Her colleagues in the Senate are looking for her, and the House of Representatives says she is embarrassing the entire legislature by becoming a fugitive from justice. Sooner than later, she will have to appear before the EFCC, who will be happy to slap handcuffs on her wrists! What is the lesson from all these? When you write your plans and schemes, remember that except the Lord builds, they labour in vain….