Biography Of Nigeria Only Female President for the 2015 election

BIOGRAPHY
Remi Sonaiya was born on March
2nd, 1955. She began her schooling
in 1961 at St. Luke’s Demonstration
School, Ibadan, from where she
proceeded to St. Anne’s School, also
in Ibadan, for her secondary
education. She obtained a Bachelor
of Arts in French from the University
of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo
University) in 1977, graduating with
the best result in her faculty, did her
Youth Service at the Nigeria Military
School, Zaria, got married, and
proceeded to Cornell University,
USA, from where she obtained an M.
A. in French Literature. Back in
Nigeria, she enrolled for another
Masters degree program, this time in
Linguistics, which she obtained in
1984, and immediately returned to
Cornell University for her PhD
studies in Linguistics. She graduated
from Cornell in 1988 and returned to
continue lecturing in the Department
of Foreign Languages of the Obafemi
Awolowo University which she had
joined in 1982 as an Assistant
Lecturer. She became a professor of
French Language and Applied
Linguistics in 2001.
Among Remi Sonaiya’s academic and
professional distinctions are the
following:
- Member of the Project Drafting
Committee for the Establishment of
the Nigeria French Language Village,
Badagry;
- Member of the executive
committees of some of her
professional associations and of the
editorial boards of several local and
international journals;
- Conference interpreter since 1989
(including for ECOWAS);
- Recipient of various international
research grants and fellowships,
including the French Government
Grant for Advanced Researchers and
the German Alexander von
Humboldt Research Fellowship;
- First Nigerian to be appointed as
the Ambassador Scientist of the
Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation, a position she occupied
from 2008 to 2014.
Apart from her academic pursuits,
Remi Sonaiya is active in and
supports several church and para-
church organisations, including the
Nigerian Fellowship of Evangelical
students (NIFES), the Nigeria Bible
Translation Trust, Calvary Ministry,
Great Commission Movement of
Nigeria, etc. She has been a bible
study teacher in her church for many
years and is on the international
faculty of Haggai Institute, Hawaii,
USA, where she lectures on
Stewardship.
Remi has always been interested in
public affairs and is passionate about
issues of justice, equity, and African
development. She is touched by the
plight of all who suffer exclusion and
other forms of injustice: children,
women, the disabled, the poor and
the unschooled. She is concerned
that the young people of Nigeria
have to bear the brunt of the
prevailing culture of corruption and
pay for it in mass failure in their
educational pursuits, very high levels
of unemployment, and feelings of
anxiety and hopelessness concerning
their future. She therefore seizes
every opportunity for engagement,
for example, through the conduct of
her “Life Skills” Seminar.
Remi’s interest in public affairs and
development issues influenced her
decision to retire voluntarily from
her position at the Obafemi Awolowo
University in 2010 in order to devote
more of her time and resources to
those pursuits. She joined KOWA
Party and was elected its National
Public Relations Officer, a position
she still occupies. She is KOWA
Party’s candidate for the 2015
Presidential elections.
Remi contributes regularly to
Nigerian media discourse. For
example, she was a blogger for 234
Next until it stopped publishing, and
she is currently a columnist with The
Niche, a weekly (Sunday) newspaper.
She has published three books on the
Nigerian (and African) condition: A
Trust to Earn – Reflections on Life and
Leadership in Nigeria (2010); Igniting
Consciousness – Nigeria and Other
Riddles (2013); and Daybreak Nigeria
– This Nation Must Rise! (2014).
Remi Sonaiya is married to
Babafunso Sonaiya, a professor of
Animal Science, and they have two
grown children and two grandsons.
Apart from English and Yoruba, Remi
also speaks French and German (as
well as some smatterings of
Portuguese). She loves to sing, cook,
write, and travel. Source (remisonaya.com )