Yemisi Ransome-Kuti

Yemisi Ransome-Kuti is the only child of Azariah Olusegun Ransome-Kuti MBE (who was appointed Chief Pharmacist for the Federation of Nigeria in 1956 until retirement from federal Medical Service; in 1951, he was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by King George VI). She is also the granddaughter of the Late Rev. Canon Josiah Ransome-Kuti.^[1] Her aunt Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a foremost feminist in Nigeria who was also part of the delegation to negotiate independence for the country from the British.

Ransome-Kuti is cousin to Fela Kuti, Olikoye Kuti, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Africa's first Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, whose mother was a Ransome-Kuti.^[2] She has four children: Segun Bucknor by her first husband, the late Naval Capt Frederick Oluwole Bucknor, and three by her second husband, Dr Kunle Soyemi - Bola Soyemi, Seun Soyemi and Eniola Soyemi. With Fela Kuti, Beko Kuti and Koye Kuti all dead, Yemisi is now seventh in line to head the Ransome-Kuti family. Mrs Tinuola Aina, sister to Wole Soyinka, is the current head of the family.

She is the recently retired chairman and founder of the Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NNNGO).^[3] The first organization of its kind in Nigeria to bring together civil society organization, it has worked since its formation 1992 to effect a harmonized agenda for third-sector development and its influence in the national framework.

In the early 1990s, she established "Girl Watch"; an organization aimed at educating young Nigerian girls from poor backgrounds. In 2006, she was appointed a Civil Society advisor to the World Bank. Yemisi Ransome-Kuti was one of those leading the charge in working for Nigeria to meet its millennium development goals and eradicate poverty.^[4]

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