15/01/2025
A ROYAL BLOOD WHO STARTED POLITICS AT 18 BECOMES THE LAGOS SPEAKER
Before she married John Paul Meranda and changed her surname, she was Mojisola Ojora Lawal, a princess whose blue blood is a pool of contributions from a few of Lagos’ royal families. Her relatives have been kings and are still rulers in the Ijora, Lagos Island, and Oniru areas of the state.
She was born on August 16, 1980, as a descendant of two prominent royal families in Lagos. Taoreed Lawal-Akapo, the late Ojora of Lagos, was her father; and Muinat, her mother, was a princess from the illustrious Oniru kingdom. Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, Mojisola’s brother, is the current Oniru of the Iru kingdom.
Politics has a magnetic force. When one grows up close to its corridors, one is most likely to be swept into its whirlwind. Mojisola was drafted into politics early in life.
“I grew up in a political arena. I had siblings that were into politics and I used to just sit down and listen to them, watch them and gradually, I learnt and thereafter picked interest in it,” she said in a chat with Nigerian Tribune in 2013.
“It has always been in me to always want to give back to my community. So, I imagined myself in a particular position where I could influence people’s lives positively. So, that has always been in me. So, going into politics was like gaining a platform to reach out to my people.”
Mojisola started politics at age 18, attending ward meetings with her brothers and cousins as soon as she could vote.
“I would sit with them and listen to them, and if I had anything to contribute to whatever was being discussed, I contributed, and if I didn’t have any, I would simply sit down and observe,” she told City People Magazine in 2023.
Before that, she was also a leader in her various schools. Mojisola attended Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School and Ansar-Ud-Deen Secondary School. According to Daily Champion, she was a library prefect and the secretary of her school’s press club.
Her childhood dream was to become a lawyer, but she shelved it after failing to attain the score needed to study law.
“I did a diploma course, though I wanted to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the cut-off mark required to study the course, so I opted for something else,” she told The Nation in 2020.
“I still went on to do the diploma course because of my interest in law. But, of course, growing up, I discovered that there were other courses that one could do apart from law.”
A PERSONAL ASSISTANT TO TINUBU’S AIDE AT 23
In 2003, at just 23, Mojisola became a personal assistant to Olumuyiwa Gbadegesin, a senior special assistant on information and technology to Bola Tinubu, when he was Lagos governor.
“He was the SSA on information technology, and it was with him that I started my career professionally,” she said.
“I worked with him, and we were together before Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu moved him to the Land Information System Support Unit, where he served as the director under the office of the surveyor general. I was also there with him.”
Mojisola got her first major post-secondary school certification in 2005. She earned an advanced certificate in software development.
After a brief stay at Cirrus Nigeria Ltd, an energy company, Mojisola was named the senior special assistant on inter-governance relations to Ayodeji Joseph, the chairman of Apapa LGA, in 2008.
During his second tenure, I was given an appointment as his supervisory councillor for health in Apapa, an office in which I am proud to say I did well,” she said.
“And that was the turning point for me because I thought to myself and said, ‘if I could excel and do so well as a supervisory councillor, why don’t I aspire for something higher?'”
Along the way, she got her first degree in public administration from Lagos State University in 2013.
ONE OF FOUR WOMEN IN 8TH LAGOS ASSEMBLY
At 34, Mojisola was elected into the Lagos state house of assembly in 2015. She became the representative of the Apapa 1 constituency and one of only four women in the 40-member house inaugurated by Akinwunmi Ambode, former governor of Lagos, in June of that year.
Other women in the house were Omotayo Oduntan, Mosunmola Sangodara and Funmilayo Tejuosho.
Mojisola was re-elected to the house in 2019 and became its chief whip a year later. She was the chairperson of the house committee on women’s affairs and poverty alleviation.
Upon re-election into the house for her third term, Mojisola became the deputy speaker.
MORE INTERESTED IN AMENDING OLD LAWS THAN SPONSORING NEW BILL
In 2021, when Mojisola was asked to list the bills she had sponsored since she became a lawmaker, her response was surprising.
“I think it is not about sponsoring bills because we have a lot of old laws that need repeal and amendment,” she said
“So, I think we need to update our own side first. It is not about sponsoring a bill, and after a while, we leave it on the shelf. So, I think we should concentrate on the old laws that need amendment and maybe take a step further by ensuring that there is proper enforcement.”
