By AYO AROWOJOLU
With barely a day passing without another community engagement, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senatorial candidate for Ogun Central, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, has remained untiring and penetrating deeply into the hearts of the people.
She is presently taking grassroots politics to a different level, moving her campaign beyond conventional rallies to sustained interaction with residents, traders, artisans, market women, community leaders and development associations.
For the former Senator and Professor of Epidemology, the emerging pattern is simple: go to the people, listen to them, understand their concerns and maintain a direct connection with the communities she hopes to represent.
That approach was again on display as Iyabo Obasanjo continued her grassroots engagement across Abeokuta North Local Government Area, visiting Olorunda, Imala and Ishaga/Ilewo wards.
She was accompanied by the PDP House of Representatives candidate for Abeokuta North, Obafemi Owode and Odeda Federal Constituency, Arc. Dele Olaleye, and the party’s House of Assembly candidate for Abeokuta North, Hon. Moruff Kehinde Oyebande.
At each stop, Obasanjo interacted with party members, supporters and residents, listening to their concerns and discussing their expectations of effective representation.
The engagements have increasingly become a recurring feature of her campaign, with the senator insisting that meaningful representation must begin with hearing directly from the people.
Hear her: “Grassroots politics is about listening, understanding and staying connected to the people”. She said this during the latest engagement.
Her message has also been reinforced by her decision to take the campaign into community structures outside conventional political gatherings.
At Oke-Odo and Saraki-Adigbe in Abeokuta South, Obasanjo met members of the Community Development Committee, where discussions centred on the concerns of residents and ways of strengthening community development.
The development comes against the backdrop of a wider grassroots mobilisation strategy that has seen the Senator visit communities across Ogun Central, including hinterland settlements, while also engaging groups such as market associations, artisans, women and youth organisations.
Recent reports have similarly highlighted her visits to communities and the distribution of empowerment items and other support materials.
Her campaign has also established a ward-level structure, with about 370 ward Coordinators inaugurated across the six local government areas of Ogun Central in the last one month.
The sustained community-to-community engagement is now becoming one of the defining features of Iyabo Obasanjo’s campaign as the 2027 election approaches.
Political observers familiar with developments in the district say the frequency of her engagements is beginning to attract attention, particularly because the senator has combined political mobilisation with direct interaction with community groups and empowerment initiatives.
Rather than waiting for large campaign rallies, she has increasingly taken her message to smaller gatherings where residents can speak directly to her.
At Oke-Odo and Saraki-Adigbe, for instance, the focus was not a conventional campaign rally but a meeting with community development representatives.
Similarly, the latest Abeokuta North tour provided an opportunity for residents to raise issues and for the candidate to discuss how representation at the senatorial, federal constituency and state Assembly levels could work together.
The approach has also dovetailed with the PDP’s wider campaign activities in Ogun Central.
The party formally flagged off its presidential and National Assembly campaigns in the district in August, with the campaign train moving through Ifo/Ewekoro, Abeokuta North and Abeokuta South amid significant turnout.
But beyond the major rallies, Iyabo Obasanjo appears determined to keep the conversation going at ward and community level.
For her, the campaign is therefore not only about asking people for votes but also about creating opportunities for continuous engagement.
“We will keep listening. We will keep engaging. We will keep working for effective representation,” she said after the Abeokuta North tour.
That message appears to be shaping the rhythm of her campaign: ward by ward, community by community, group by group.
And as the 2027 contest gradually gathers intensity, one refrain is increasingly becoming associated with the Obasanjo campaign among her supporters and political watchers: the Iyabo grassroots mobilisation is not slowing down.
From Olorunda to Imala, Ishaga/Ilewo, Oke-Odo and Saraki-Adigbe, the campaign continues to take the candidate directly to the people — with the promise that, for Iyabo Obasanjo, the road to representation begins with listening.
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