Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s step-daughter, Mrs Adetokunbo Tobun-Agbesanwa, has declared her interest to succeed Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, western Nigeria, in 2015.
Tobun-Agbesanya is the daughter of the late former wife of Obasanjo, Major Moji Adekunle and Chief Adekunle-Tobun, a prominent politician in the Third Republic.
The governorship aspirant, who is the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Fashola on School Environmental Advocacy, said she would be vying for the governorship under the banner of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and will be slugging it out with Akinwumi Ambode, Dr. Kadri Hamzat and others at the party’s primary in November.
She would be aspiring for Lagos governorship under Epe Division of the party.
Tobun-Agbesanwa said: “I’m confident about my victory in the primaries. I’m bold and confident, even though I am the only female aspirant who has indicated interest in vying for the position.
“I think politics is supposed to be fair, it is like you wake up in the morning and you are just lying down, you don’t do exercise. Over time, you will have heart problem, you will have serious problem. In politics, if you don’t allow people to compete, if you don’t allow activities, then you are looking for a time bomb,” she said.
She said nobody has endorsed her candidacy, but noted that “I don’t think at my age somebody has to call me to tell me what is right or wrong or what I can do or not capable of doing. If you allow people to determine who you are, then you have failed in the first place. So, you have to believe in yourself first.”
P.M.NEW learnt that some groups are already canvassing and urging the leadership of the APC to field her for next year’s polls.
One of such groups is the Lagos State Heritage Independent Group.
President of the group, Prince Shasore Dosunmu, disclosed that Tobun-Agbesanwa has been adopted by their group to contest on the platform of APC, reiterating that their members are in all five divisions of the state.
He described Mrs Tobun-Agbesanwa as a woman of substance and also a woman who had been tested and could also be trusted.
He urged the leadership of the Lagos APC to make history and become the first party to have a woman governor in the state.
Dosunmu advised that a successor to Fashola should not be over 50 years but below it because Lagosians needed a person below 50 years who is energetic, well educated, well cultured and that can listen to them.
Tobun-Agbesanwa was born 44 years ago in Epe division of Lagos State to parents who were once very active in politics.
Her father was a Commissioner for Information during Otedola’s era and also her mother, was the first female Presidential Aspirant in Nigeria and founder of a political party, Masses Movement of Nigeria.
