Monsurat Sunmonu

Monsurat Sunmonu (Mrs)is a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. She represents the citizens of the Oyo Central Senatorial District, having won the election held on 28 March 2015. Senator Sunmonu is also the Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is the immediate past Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Nigeria. While in the House of Assembly she was the member representing Oyo East and Oyo West local governments. She became the first female Speaker in the history of Oyo State on 10 June 2011.

Monsurat Sunmonu was born on 9 April 1959, in Oyo, Oyo State to Late (Alhaji) Pa Akeeb Alagbe Sunmonu and Late (Alhaja) Amudalat Jadesola Sunmonu (née Afonja) and is of royal descent in Oyo kingship.

She he had her primary school education at Children’s Boarding School, Oshogbo- now the capital of Osun State, Nigeria.

She attended the Ilora Baptist Grammar School, Ilora, Oyo State, for the early part of her secondary school education before transferring to Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo State.

She later attended the Kwara State College of Technology for her ‘A’ levels.

Monsurat briefly worked at the Accounts Department of the Property Development Corporation of Oyo state (now Housing Corporation) in Bodija Ibadan, Oyo State before travelling to the UK in 1979.

Sunmonu attended Holborn Law tutors for her LL.B. She then went on to the London School of Accountancy to complete a course to qualify for the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators. She later attended Lewisham College for her Business in Management Studies.

After completing her studies, she briefly worked at the National Westminster Bank (NatWest) before taking up employment with the Government of the United Kingdom. There she worked in the UK Border Agency (UKBA), as a Detained Case Work Manager; a position she held for over 20 years.

While at the UKBA, she attended various managerial and executive courses and was one of the first Nigerians be given "higher security clearance" in the British Government.

Sunmonu rose through the ranks to be a senior member of the British Government; before leaving honourably and graciously in 2011 to contest for a seat in the Oyo State House of Assembly, where she would go on to become Speaker.

Her philanthropic and kind nature led to her rise in Oyo State politics and she is widely known and highly regarded amongst the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom, where she was resident for over 30 years.

As an indigene of Oyo, Oyo State, on 26 April 2011 Monsurat Sunmonu contested on the platform of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) for the Oyo East and Oyo West seat in the House of Assembly.

She convincingly won the election, winning all 20 available Wards in her constituency.

Monsurat Sunmonu was then nominated to be the Speaker of the House at its inauguration on 10 June 2011 she became the first female Speaker in the history of the Oyo State House of Assembly.

Rt. Hon. Sunmonu demonstrated uncommon leadership skill in leading the House, for an unprecedented 4 years and was able to earn the confidence of her fellow Honourable members as well as the cooperation and respect of the other two arms of the Government.

The House of Assembly under her leadership was by far the most productive in the history of Oyo State; in totem the House considered 85 Bills in its 4-year tenure: with 8 Bills at 1st Reading stage, 16 Bills at 2nd Reading stage and 61 Bills passed into Law. The House passed both Executive and Private Member Bills to provide legal framework for Government business and activities. 387 Resolutions were also passed advising the Executive arm on the direction government should go and advancing pro-people issues.

As a mobiliser of men and resources, Rt. Hon. Monsurat Sunmonu was able to propel the Oyo State House of Assembly towards charting developmental causes in line with her motto: "Advancing Peoples Interest".

Not only was Rt. Hon. Sunmonu the first female Speaker in the history of Oyo State, she is also the first Speaker to use a full and uninterrupted term of government.

Her achievements in the Oyo State House of Assembly were despite the potentially volatile composition of the 32 member House at inception which included 13 Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) members, 12 People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and 7 Accord (Nigeria) Party members.

Rt. Hon. Sunmonu is now revered as one of the leading women in Nigeria.

Autonomy

While Speaker, Sunmonu passed the Constitutional amendment requiring financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly. Vehemently arguing that the finances of the legislative arm of a State government should not be subject to Executive discretion, the Oyo State House of Assembly passed the amendment. Although the amendment was passed in the required 2/3 of Nigeria's 36 State Assemblies, it did not receive the Presidential assent of President Goodluck Jonathan.

In May 2012, Sunmonu was voted as the Deputy-Chair of the Conference of Speakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which consists of the 36 Speakers of each State in the Federation.

She was the first Speaker in Oyo State history to sit on the executive council of the Conference of Speakers.

On 28 March 2015, Sunmonu contested the Oyo Central Senatorial District seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winning 105,378 votes, ahead of Luqman O. Ilaka of the Accord (Nigeria) (Accord) with 84,675 votes and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Sen. Ayo Adeseun with 44,045 votes. Other candidates in the election were Elijah Abiala of the Labour Party who scored 27,490, Caleb Oyelese of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) polling 7,362 and Olusegun Ogunyemi of the DPP who polled 1,343.

She is the first female Senator to represent Oyo State in the Upper Chambers of the National Assembly.

Senator Sunmonu is the Chair of the Senate committee on Foreign Affairs and is also the Deputy-Chair of the Senate committee on State & Local Government.

While in the Senate, Sunmonu has been very vocal on issues that concern her constituency, namely: women's rights, grazing reserves, corruption, education, climate change and infrastructure.

Women’s Rights

In the National Assembly, Sunmonu has continued her social activism and been very vocal in her calls for equal rights for women in Nigeria. She is widely noted for her support of the #GenderEqualityBill and has often called for cross-party cooperation to get the Bill passed.

Anti-Corruption

Sunmonu has been known for her stance on anti-corruption since her days as Speaker in the Oyo State House of Assembly and her position has not changed since becoming a Senator. She is an ardent supporter of President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade and has attended conferences both inside and outside of Nigeria on the issue. In her capacity as Chair of the Senate committee on Foreign Affairs, she has been clear that the only way to tackle corruption is by adopting a multilateral approach so that criminals cannot hide money in foreign countries.

Grazing Reserves

Sunmonu has also lent her voice in opposition to the controversial #GrazingReserveBill. Quoted as saying that the Bill could adversely affect the constituents who voted for her, she has remained forthright that cattle rearing is a business; and, therefore cattle-rearers should purchase land and not be allocated land by Government. Her statements on this issue have invited a lot of social commentary from prominent lawyers who have debated the implications of the Land Use Act vis-à-vis the Constitution.

Climate Change

Since becoming a Senator, Sunmonu has been very vocal in her calls for Nigeria to reduce its carbon footprint and the need to turn to renewable sources of energy. She was part of the delegation that attended the historic #COP21 in Paris, France, where for the first time countries signed a historic pact to reduce CO2 emissions before 2020.

Education

During the presentation of the 2016 Budget, Sunmonu charged the Federal Government to increase its spending in Technical Colleges. She forcefully argued that the culture of pushing all students to white collar academics is wrong, instead that if adequate investment is made in technical colleges it will open a new area of industry and help reduce unemployment. She has made calls for increased allocation to Technical Colleges within her Senatorial District.

Infrastructure

Oyo-Ogbomosho Expressway
Sunmonu copiously campaigned on the deterioration of the Ibadan-Ilorin expressway, for which a contract was given in 1999. The road was split into 3 phases: Ibadan-Oyo, Oyo-Ogbomosho and Ogbomosho-Ilorin, with only the Oyo-Ogbomosho axis uncompleted. True to her words, on 4 August 2015, she co-sponsored a motion on the Senate floor along with Sen. Dino Melaye on the deplorable condition of some Nigerian roads, of which Oyo-Ogbomosho was specifically mentioned. She is reported to have met with the contractor and top government officials in an effort to ensure completion of the road. The road was included in the 2016 National Budget with 6 Billion Naira budgeted towards resumption of work. Sunmonu flagged off the resumption of work on 22 August 2016, about 1 year after moving the motion on the floor of the Senate with Sen. Kabiru Gaya (Chairman, Senate Committee on Works) being quoted as saying that "Senator Sunmonu was on the neck of the Senate and the committee to ensure that the road is accommodated in the budget". The pressure from Sunmonu caused the Executive to publicly commit to complete the road within the next 2 years.

Ibadan-Ife Expressway

On hearing that there were a spate of accidents in the Adegbayi area (Egbeda Local Government) of the Ibadan-Ife Expressway, Sunmonu visited the site and was shocked by the condition of the expressway. She immediately called the Managing Director of the contractor and within 1 month, the area of the expressway was repaired.

While in the UK, Sunmonu was a member of the Oyo Descendants Union UK, an organisation which annually sponsored the education of many Oyo indigenes. Aside from this she played a pivotal and important role in the lives of hundreds of Oyo indigenes who emigrated to the UK and various parts of Nigeria.

Since moving to Nigeria, she has continued her drive to help students and annually sponsors students towards tertiary education, she also assists to ensure that each of her charges gets a place in higher education.

MOSWEF

She has always had a passion to render help to the less privileged in the society particularly women, and her non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) caters for the economic and social well being of people in Oyo State. The MONSURAT OLAJUMOKE SUNMONU WORLD EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION (MOSWEF) provides community activities to socially elevate women and the less privileged.

Part of the activities of MOSWEF is to empower women, children and the less privileged in the State and help them get out of acute poverty by helping them to build their businesses. Using MOSWEF as a vehicle Sunmonu has sponsored thousands of less privileged to training courses and providing small scale loans.

With good working relations, she has provided constituency empowerment funds and has executed various projects in her constituencies.

Sunmonu has won many philanthropic and performance related awards, both prior to taking office and since.

Monsurat Sunmonu has made political history in Nigeria on a number of fronts:

1. First ever female Speaker in the Oyo State;

2. First ever Oyo State Speaker to use a full term of Government un-impeached;

3. First ever Oyo State Speaker to sit on the Executive Committee of the Conference of Speakers of Nigeria (occupied office of Deputy Chair);

4. First ever female Senator from Oyo State;

5. Second ever female Senator from South-West Nigeria;

6. Awarded the Best Speaker in Nigeria in 2012 & 2013.