Mojisola Meranda, Lagos first female speaker,started politics at 18

On Monday, the reign of Mudashiru Obasa as the speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly came to a rough end. The ugly painting had been coming together on the walls of Alausa for Obasa for a while. But before the Agege political titan could decipher the full picture, he was gone. His tenure as the number three citizen in Lagos smouldered in its 10th year — on the same floor it all began.

It was swift, decisive, and unanimous, as though the lawmakers had long made the decision over Chrismas rice and chicken. No resistance was allowed. The youths who trespassed into the assembly complex to protest the impeachment were arrested and forced to pledge their allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) amid campaign songs and slogans. As Obasa’s sun quenches, a new star rises in its wake.

Mojisola Lasbat Meranda was unanimously elected to lead the house. The 44-year-old was the deputy speaker until Obasa ouster. She became the first female speaker of the Lagos state house of assembly since 1999.

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.

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