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Wuraola Esan was the first woman to break the norm and become a senator in Nigeria in the first republic. She was born in Ibadan in 1914 and attended Idi Aba Baptist Girls School in Abeokuta before heading to the United Missionary College to earn a teachers training diploma.
She was a domestic Science teacher from 1930 to 1934 at a missionary training school in Abeokuta. At a period where educational facilities were limited to women during the colonial period, she was able to establish the Ibadan People’s Girls Grammar School in Molete in 1944.
Wuraola Esan entered the political scene in the 1950s and was a member of the women’s wing of the Action Group. She rose in rank to become the first ever female member of the Nigerian National Assembly as a nominated senator from Ibadan West.
Her philosophy was that as a woman you had to be twice as effective and efficient as a man to get recognition. She championed the cause for emancipation and empowerment of women and was a voice for the education, training and progress of women.
In 1975, she was awarded the highest chieftaincy awarded to women in Ibadan which is the Iyalode of Ibadan.
Wuraola Esan was a politician, feminist activist and educator, she died in 1985
