LASU ARCHIVE: THE WOMAN WHO BROKE THE GLASS CEILING IN LASUSU
Hassan Mojirade Monsurat: The First Woman to Lead LASUSU
By Swift School News
LASU Archive Series
Before today's LASU students began debating student politics on WhatsApp, X and Telegram, there were generations of students who fought their battles through congresses, meetings, protests and face-to-face negotiations.
And among the names from that era is a woman who made LASU history simply by occupying a position no woman before her had held.
Her name was Comrade Hassan Mojirade Monsurat, popularly known as M.J.
In 2013, she emerged as the first female President of the Lagos State University Students' Union (LASUSU)—a milestone that placed her name permanently in the history of student leadership at LASU. Contemporary accounts and a later academic publication on female student leadership in Nigeria identify her as LASU's first female student-union president.
But her story was not simply about being the first woman.
It was also about how she got there and what she faced when she arrived.
SHE DIDN'T WALK INTO THE PRESIDENCY AS A STRANGER
By the time Mojirade became president, she was already familiar with the machinery of student unionism.
In a 2013 interview, she explained that she had served twice in the Students' Parliamentary Council, representing her constituency in both her 200-level and 300-level years.
She also served as secretary of the Social Committee before becoming Vice-President of the Students' Union.
That progression eventually led her to the presidency.
In other words, her journey was not simply:
student → president.
It was:
parliamentarian → union executive → vice-president → president.
She had already spent years inside the system before eventually becoming its leader.
“HOW CAN A LADY RULE US?”
Perhaps the most revealing part of her story was the gender question.
Mojirade recalled that becoming LASUSU President came with an additional challenge because she was a woman.
She acknowledged that some people questioned whether a woman could lead the union, describing the attitude as a perception that raised the question:
“How can a lady rule us?”
For a university student leader operating in an environment where student politics had traditionally been dominated by men, the significance of that moment went beyond one election.
She was not merely seeking to occupy an office.
She was entering a space where her gender itself had become part of the conversation.
And she had an answer.
Leadership would have to speak for itself.
THEN LASU ENTERED ANOTHER PERIOD OF CRISIS
Mojirade's time in office coincided with a turbulent period at LASU.
One of the major issues confronting students involved school fees and registration.
Reports from January 2014 show that students who had not completed registration were unable to access the university's portal, with the situation eventually contributing to a major student protest.
Mojirade, who was then serving as Student Union President, told the Lagos State House of Assembly that students had initially embarked on a peaceful protest to appeal for the reopening of the portal.
She also said the union had held several meetings with the Vice-Chancellor in an attempt to resolve the issue.
The situation eventually escalated.
University property was damaged, examinations were disrupted and the Vice-Chancellor's vehicles were vandalised, according to contemporary reports.
Mojirade's position was that the original student protest had been hijacked by hoodlums.
The Lagos State House of Assembly subsequently summoned representatives of both the university management and the students' union to hear their accounts of the crisis.
It was one of those moments when student leadership was tested beyond campaign promises.
WHEN STUDENT LEADERSHIP MEANT GOING TO THE ASSEMBLY
Imagine being a university student and finding yourself before lawmakers explaining what was happening on your campus.
That was part of Mojirade's experience.
At the Lagos State House of Assembly, she presented the students' position and explained the sequence of events surrounding the registration crisis.
She told lawmakers that affected students had repeatedly pleaded for the portal to be reopened and that meetings had been held with university management.
Whatever one's interpretation of the events that followed, the episode illustrates the unusual responsibility that came with leading LASUSU during that period.
The Student Union President was no longer speaking only to fellow students.
She was speaking before university authorities, lawmakers and the wider public.
SHE ALSO LED DURING THE ASUU STRIKE ERA
The challenges facing students were not limited to LASU's internal issues.
In August 2013, during the nationwide ASUU strike, Mojirade spoke publicly about the impact of the prolonged shutdown on students.
P.M. News reported her saying that the strike had taken the shine off students' academic purpose after they had spent a prolonged period away from school.
It was another reminder that student union leaders had responsibilities extending beyond campus elections.
They had to respond to national education issues that directly affected students' academic progress.
A RECORD SHE WAS DETERMINED TO LEAVE
In a 2013 interview, Mojirade said that although she had spent only a relatively short period in office at that point, her administration had already set records for future administrations to surpass.
Among the things she highlighted was the LASUSU Match, which she described as the first of its kind in the union's history.
Her message to female students was equally significant.
She encouraged them to focus on their studies, work hard and compete strongly with their male counterparts.
Her argument was straightforward:
If women were demanding equality, they also had to be prepared to demonstrate their capabilities.
FROM “CAN A WOMAN LEAD?” TO “SHE LED.”
That perhaps captures the most interesting part of Mojirade's LASUSU story.
When she emerged, the question was reportedly whether a woman could lead the union.
But history eventually recorded something much simpler:
A woman did lead LASUSU.
She had served in parliament.
She had served as Vice-President.
She eventually became President.
And when a major student crisis erupted, her administration became part of the negotiations and public discussions surrounding the issue.
That does not mean every decision made during her tenure should automatically be celebrated.
Student union history, like every other form of history, deserves examination from multiple perspectives.
But the significance of her presidency as a milestone in LASU's history is difficult to overlook.
THE NAME THAT SHOULD BE IN THE ARCHIVE
Today, a new generation of LASU students may know the names of their immediate past union presidents but know very little about the people who built the foundation before them.
Mojirade Hassan's story is one of those chapters worth reopening.
Not because she was perfect.
Not because every event during her tenure had a happy ending.
But because history happened around her—and she was at the centre of it.
She became the first woman to lead LASUSU.
She inherited difficult student issues.
She represented students before government lawmakers.
She navigated a period of tension between students and university management.
And she left behind a story that remains relevant to today's conversation about representation and student leadership.
BUT HERE IS THE QUESTION FOR TODAY'S LASUITES...
How many current students even know that LASUSU once had a female president?
And for those who were around during her administration:
What do you remember about M.J.?
Was she effective?
What did her administration get right?
What did it get wrong?
What was LASUSU like during that period?
And what lessons can today's student leaders learn from that era?
Let's open the archive.
If you were a LASU student around 2013–2014, drop your memories below.
If you have old LASU photographs, campaign posters, newspapers, videos or documents from the era, Swift School News wants to see them.
Because the history of LASU should not belong only to those who lived it.
It should also be preserved for those coming after them.
SWIFT SCHOOL NEWS
Documenting LASU. Preserving the memories. Connecting generations.
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