Iyabo Obasanjo Refuses To Deny Authorship Of Letter To Her Father

SaharaReporters has learned that former Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, the
first daughter of President Olusegun Obasanjo, has refused to denounce
or deny her authorship of a blistering letter in which she
characterized her father, among other unflattering epithets, as a
liar, hypocrite, manipulator and opportunist. A source close to Mr.
Obasanjo told our correspondent that Ms. Obasanjo had so far defied
pressures from friends and family to state that she was not the writer
of the letter or that she did not share the views expressed in it.
SaharaReporters also discovered that Ms. Obasanjo, who currently
resides in the State of Massachusetts, has refused to take phone calls
from the press. Instead, she has only accepted calls from a select few
people whose caller IDs she knows, according to a friend knowledgeable
about her movement today.
The friend also disclosed that Ms. Obasanjo had virtually stopped
taking calls on her cell phone, except from members of a small inner
circle. Part of her plan was to thwart relatives and friends of her
father who had been sent on a mission to convince her to dissociate
herself from the content of the explosive letter in order to save her
father's image. Our source revealed that the former senator's cell
phone rang incessantly all day yesterday, but was hardly answered. Our
correspondent ascertained that Ms. Obasanjo's voice message box was
full, making it impossible for callers to leave her any messages.
Since the letter was published yesterday, several blogs have claimed
that Ms. Obasanjo had denied writing it, an assertion that
SaharaReporters determined to be completely false.
Several sources atVanguardnewspaper told SaharaReporters that former
President Obasanjo's daughter spoke twice yesterday with editors of
the paper and stood by her letter. One source added that the former
senator also agreed to let the paper release a tape of her
confirmation should the need arise.
Late yesterday, SaharaReporters contacted the Harvard University
Advanced Leadership Initiative where Ms. Obasanjo is a fellow.
Speaking to our reporter, John Kendzior, a director of the program,
confirmed that Ms. Obasanjo was in Boston and enrolled in the program.
He asked our correspondent to send an email to be forwarded to her for
response. However, Ms. Obasanjo did not respond to an email we sent
via the director. Nor did she respond to several text messages to her
mobile phone.
The fallout between Mr. Obasanjo and his daughter is the latest in a
long-running feud between the former president and several members of
his immediate family. Several years ago, Gbenga, Mr. Obasanjo's first
son, made shocking claims in a divorce filing to the effect that his
father slept with his estranged wife. The former president's first
wife, Oluremi Obasanjo, who is the mother of both Iyabo and Gbenga,
also wrote a scathing tell-all memoir titledBitter-Sweet: My Life With
Obasanjo.In the book, Mrs. Obasanjo accused her former husband of
physical and emotional assaults as well as philandering.
Former President Obasanjo has come under sharp attacks from aides of
President Goodluck Jonathan after the former wrote an open letter
accused Mr. Jonathan of deception, encouragement of corruption, and
the undermining of Nigeria's democracy.