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The Story Of Hon. MOJISOLA LASBAT MERANDA
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Details Of Her Interview With City People
She is one of the very active lawmakers in the Lagos House of Assembly. She is vocal. She is hardworking. And her voice carries weight, in the scheme of things in the house.
Until Monday, 13th January, 2025, Hon. (Mrs.) Mojisola Lasbat Meranda was the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. She is quite popular amongst her colleagues. She represents Apapa 1 Constituency. And she has done a good job of her assignment. Everywhere you go, people commend her, as she measures up to her colleagues in delivering the dividends of democracy to her constituents.
She has been in the system for a long while and she has served meritoriously in all the sectors where she has been. She is a Lagosian per excellence. Let’s tell you her story. Hon. Mojisola Lasbat Meranda was born to the noble family of late Chief T. A Lawal Akapo (Ojora of Lagos) and Princess M. A. Lawal-Akapo of the royal families of Ojora, Aromire, Onitana, Oloto, and Oniru royal families.
She had her primary education at St. Charles Nursery and Primary School and later on Randle Primary School. She attended Anglican Girls Grammar School and Ansar-Ud-Deen Secondary School both in Surulere where she held the posts of the Library Prefect and Secretary, Press Club. She obtained the West African School Certificate (WASC) examination in the college.
She is a highly adventurous scholar. Young Mojisola Lasbat Meranda attended NIIT where she obtained a Certificate in Software Development (Network Engineering). She also obtained a B.Sc in Public Administration from the Lagos State University (LASU), Masters of Public and International Affairs (MPIA) from University of Lagos and Master in Business Administration MBA, Public Sector Management from University of York, UK and Master of Criminology, University of Lagos (Ongoing).
She is a woman of impeccable character and sterling track record. Hon. Mojisola Lasbat Meranda later joined the service of the Lagos State Ministry of Science and Technology in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration as the Personal Assistant to the SSA on Information Technology. She then went on to serve as the Personal Assistant to the Director of Land Information System Support Unit (LISSU) of the Surveyor general and one time the Office Manager of Cirrus Nigeria Limited in Lekki, Lagos. She later formed her own company called Worthline International Services Limited.
She is a progressive to the core. Mojisola Meranda was a member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) which transformed to the Action Congress (AC), which also became Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now All Progressives Congress (APC) party. She is a dynamic political team player, who served as a Senior Special Assistant on Intervention and Inter-Governmental Relations in Apapa Local Government. She got elevated to serve as the Supervisor for Health in the same Local Government and was a frontal/team player in the day to day health care delivery programmes in the local government after which she ‘took the bull by the horn’ by contesting in the primary election to represent her constituency which she won by a landslide.
She then proceeded to contest the elective post into the Lagos State House of Assembly with other political parties and she came out victorious. She was the Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in the 8th Assembly. She was also the Chairman, House Committee on Establishment and later the Chief Whip in the 9th Assembly. She’s currently the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. And she is doing a good job.
Mojisola Lasbat Meranda greatest virtues are Honesty, Hardwork, Transparency and Integrity, without which she says, a woman’s rating becomes hallow. She is a woman of substance with a great sense of Responsibility and Reliability.
She’s happily married to Engineer Johnpaul Meranda and blessed with children. Not too long ago, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE got her to talk about her success story as a Politician and a frontline Lawmaker.
Kindly share with us how your Constituency Stakeholder’s meeting went?
It went well, it was very peaceful and engaging. I had the opportunity of giving my people the feedback of our activities so far at the Lagos State House of Assembly. And they were also able to relate their concerns, their worries and their request to the government through me and which the House is presently working on, compiling the reports of all the voting units, constituency stakeholder meeting to do a presentation to Mr. Governor. So, he can capture if not all, some of it in next year’s budget before bringing the budget to the house. That’s the essence of.
I heard the Constituency Stakeholders Meeting is usually an annual thing. This years own was the 9th and the focus was on Food Security.
Yes, every year we have different topics to discuss. However it’s not limiting people from expressing themselves. It’s not limiting them, and it’s not also limiting us, whatever they think or they feel they need to call our attention to they speak out and we treat it there. But it’s a yearly program.
So what has been your experience as a Lagos Lawmaker?
Well, since the commencement of the 10th Assembly, or ever since I got into assembly?
Both of them.
Okay, well, I think it’s been an interesting one, though there were challenges, and we’re still having that, and the 10th assembly is just a little above a year. So, some things are actually strange to us as citizens, which we try to adapt. But I know that with perseverance and patience we would weather the storm together and at the end of the day, we all going to be victorious.
It’s been like, how many years?
Well, this is my Third term as a legislator. So this is my ninth year, going on to 10 at the Lagos State House of Assembly.
So what has kept you excited about the job?
Well, I try to be myself, and I’m not too far from my people. I was born and brought up where I represent them now. So I know my ways around my community, and basically they see me as one of them, which has been working positively for me.
Why did you go into Politics at the time you did?
Well, I tell people that Politics is actually a thing of the mind. You need to show interest. You need to have interest in it. And luckily for me, I was actually born into a political environment. Way back, my dad was a lawmaker, at the local government level, before he became a traditional ruler. So I think it’s, it’s a ME. I love politics. I love playing politics. And the idea behind it is, what can I give back to my community? What can I also do for my people? That was actually the motivation that pushed me into Politics.
Since you came in, have you been able to do a couple of things……
Well, as a Lawmaker, as a Legislator, there are limitations and restrictions. As a lawmaker, my primary assignment is normally lawmaking, lobbying, oversight functions over the executive arm of government, and I’ve been doing that, but because of my background, because of the things I have interest in, most of the time, I work outside the box, outside my jurisdiction, by reaching out to people in my own little way. Part of what I’ve been able to do as a lawmaker is, I do yearly, ever since I got into the house, I do yearly Jamb forms. And I make sure I monitor and do tutorials for students. Some of them are now graduates. So I mentor them. I’ve been also able to do couple of water projects, about 6, seven. I’m not really sure water projects. I do yearly coding programs for secondary school students during the summer period, just to keep them busy, they learn coding so they can be able to develop different apps, be it game app, useful study app as well. Okay, I’ve been able to do health mission couple of times, bringing medical practitioners together into my constituency, one for four days, another one for five days. That comprises of free eye screening and giving out free glasses. There was dental unit I was doing, teeth polishing, polishing, excavation, fixing high blood pressure and diabetes, and medications were given, mini surgery, and the ones that they discovered that was going to end up to be a major surgery, we refer them to general hospitals, which I also did follow up, to assist them financially, in my own little way.
I’ve also been able to support our petty traders, to give out things, to support them, financial support to our petty traders, to boost their market. Then during the covid period, I was able to reach out to about 1500 households by supporting them with food items, during the covid period. and during this 10th Assembly, I’ve also been able to support my constituents in providing palliative and cash donation to another 1500 vulnerable households within my constituency, food stores and cash support for just pushing the effect of fuel subsidy removal, and for this 9th stakeholders town hall meeting that will be, I was able to train 100 youths. I called them APAPA young farmers, to train them about home farming, how to do home farming, to encourage them to go into farming, to start small. And let’s see. I told them after six months or a year, let’s see what and what you’ve been able to do, so we can know how we can support you again. So I was able to do that the training, and they were given some farming equipment to support them start off, and seedlings as well to support them. And yearly, I do Back to School program every September, but this year’s own was a bit delayed because of the town hall meeting. I decided to do it together same day. So I was able to give, I have eight primary schools, public primary schools in my constituency in APAPA. So I was able to support over 1000 students with school bag, writing material, mathematical, note books, and what have you just to push in the effect of the hardship, to support their parents, the pupil as well.
So which would you consider to be the most challenging issue since you came in?
Well, I would say Traffic actually played a negative role in APAPA. But thank God, it’s much better now, because a lot of organizations, a lot of companies, actually moved out of APAPA, so that brought about another form of hardship within the community, because we have youths that work with XYZ company, but fortunately, when they start moving out, it became a little bit difficult, but we’ve been managing ourselves and encouraging those there that it’s there’s definitely going to be light after every tunnel, so we gradually getting out of it.
What do you always say when people criticise the APC that the party is not doing enough.
Well, it depends on who is actually making the comments. So if I hear comments from people and I think, okay, these people are the kind of people I can speak to, I can sensitize, I enlighten them in my own little but if I sense any tone of opposition or whatever, I just let it slide. There’s no point discussing with such people, because you discover that most of them, they know, but they just want to see whatever they want to see because of their party affiliation. However, we still relate to people. We sensitize them that okay, this thing has been on for a while where we are today its unfortunate, but I believe we’ll get out of it if we had taken some critical decisions way back, maybe we won’t be where we are today. But I know that Nigeria shall be great again.
So how do you see the efforts and what Mr. President has done so far?
I think I’ll give it to him. I think he has the Political Will to take some decisions. To me I believe he has no political godfather, so that makes things easy for him. However, if the way he is trying to make things better, if we can have all the 36 state governors and all the Council Chairmen also stand up to their responsibilities, because we discovered that most of the things people actually complaining about in all these developed countries that we go to, they are responsibilities of the local council, if we look at most of it. Be it council flags, good road, provision of water. Unfortunately, here we try to take everything to the federal government, which I don’t think is supposed to be so. Let us all be responsible. Let us all be accountable for whatever job we have decided to take up. Let us be responsible by letting the people know what our jobs are and do the needful as at when due then there will be less pressure on the federal government. And thank God the local government now have their autonomy, which I think they should be able to spend their money, and they won’t be any form of interference. But if they now decide to do otherwise, then we might end up going back to square 1.
Finally, what would be your message to your constituency.
Well, to my people in APAPA, first of all, I would want to appreciate them for their love, their support over the years, I appreciate every single voter in APAPA, every single resident of APAPA, for believing in me and sending me out to lagos state house of assembly to represent them, and it also a promise from me to them that I won’t take them for granted. I am doing my best, and I will continue to do my best, and I tell them that, I also want to tell them to hang in there. We will definitely smile at the end of the day.
How do you feel being part of the Lagos State House of Assembly which many people say is doing very well?
I am always happy. I’m excited being a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly. Just like you said, Lagos State House of Assembly is above common standard of excellence. And I know that we have a lot of people that come to the house to under study the things we do, and I thank God for the leadership of the house before we even got in there, because it shows that it’s the foundation that they’ve been able to lay down. That’s what we are actually building on. And it’s really going a long way, because those that came behind us, even if you, if you your intentions coming into the house, people come into the house with different intentions, but getting into Lagos State House of Assembly. You know that it’s not a child’s play here. It’s either you do the work or you just let that four years slide and just be on your own. So it’s, it’s been a wonderful experience for me personally.
How have you found working with the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa.
He’s a very fantastic person. As human beings we are all not perfect. There are challenges. There are flaws that we all have. But, you know, we are human. But generally, he’s been supportive. He’s been a good leader. And he operates an Open Door Policy. You can relate with him. You can discuss things with him. He will also tell you his own opinion. We sit down together as a body. Most of the things we do at the house, we discuss at the parliamentary meeting where we discuss. Okay, these are the things on ground. How do we go about it? So he gets opinion and suggestions from members, not minding that he’s the Number one. He still calls the other 39 members, and we discuss before agreeing as a team to take a particular decision.
Tell us a bit about your growing up.
I was born here in Lagos. I’m from the royal families of Ojora families of Lagos. My mom is from a royal family. My dad happened to be the late Ojora before the present one then. So I was born here in Lagos. I schooled in Lagos. I’ve been schooling all my life in Lagos, My primary school, was St Charles in Surulere. My Secondary School was in Surulere then Lagos State University LASU. I also did my first Masters In Unilag, Masters in Public Administration and International Affairs, MPIA, my second masters in University of York. Then I’m also kind of running another Master’s in Criminology, University of Lagos.
Before joining the House, I’ve worked with Cirrus Nigeria, Limited. The office used to be in Lekki Phase 1 here. But before Cirrus, I was with the present MD of LAWMA. I happen to be SSA to now Mr. President way back, SSA, Information Technology. So I was with him. I started with him at the Ministry of Science and Tech, and later we both moved to Office of Surveyor General. He was then the Director of Land Information Support System Unit, LISSU. So I was with him there before joining APAPA Local Government as a Supervising Councillor. Before being a supervising councillor, I joined APAPA Local Government under the present MD of LSDPC. He was the Council Chairman then. So I joined him as SSA, Intergovernmental Relations. Then later, during the Second term, I was promoted to be the Supervisor for Health, which I did and after his tenure, I started my own Nigeria, Limited, which was more into Oil & Gas and dredging before coming on board the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2015.
