Wuraola Esan

Chief Wuraola Esan
Born	1909 Calabar
Died	1985
Nationality	Nigerian
Occupation(s)	Educator, politician
Known for	National Council of Women Societies
Title	Iyalode of Ibadan
Parent	Thomas Ade-Ojo

Wuraola Adepeju Esan was born in 1909 in Calabar to the Ojo-badan family of Ibadan.^[2]

Her parents were not western trained although they promoted a western educative course for their children. Wuraola Adepeju father, Thomas Ojo-Ade, was a veteran soldier of World War I and fifth in the line of succession to the Ibadan throne. Her mother, Ajike Ojo Aina, popularly known as Iya Gbogbo (mother of all), was a self-made businesswoman. As at the start of the twentieth century, the British colonial administration did not encourage the education of girls in Nigeria but Esan’s parents recognized the importance of the acquisition of Western education for their female children. Wuraola Adepeju Esan attended Baptist Girls College, Idi Aba, Abeokuta before proceeding to the United Missionary College, Molete, Ibadan to earn a teachers training diploma.

From 1930 to 1934, she was a

Esan was deeply inspired by the Lagos Women’s League which gave active support for the education of girls. Her political activism gained its momentum when she and some other women played active roles in the Nigerian Youth Movement and the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons—which were very active in the politics of Lagos at the time. A few years later she moved back to her hometown of Ibadan.[3]

Political career

Although educational facilities available to women during the colonial era were limited. In 1944, she established the Ibadan People's Girls Grammar School in Molete,^[4] to educate women in different subjects including domestic science. However, her views and subsequent political ideas did not advocate a much more expanded vision of women's place in a broader society.^[5]

In the 1950s, she entered