Rukayat Shittu

Rukayat Shittu was born on 6 June 1996 in Manyan, Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State.[5] She attended Baptist Primary School LGEA in Ilorin, and Government Girls Day Secondary School, Oko Erin where she obtained her Senior Secondary School Certificate in 2011.[6][7] She attended Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies where she obtained a diploma certificate in Mass Communication and Islamic Studies in 2015.[8][7] In 2017, she got admission into the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to study Mass Communication and graduated in 2022.[9][10]

Shittu was the first female senate president at the Congress of NOUN Students (CONS), an unofficial students association at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).[7] After graduating, she worked at Just Event Media, based in Ilorin as a journalist.[11] In 2022, Shittu picked the interest form for the Kwara state House of Assembly under the All Progressives Congress[11] and was declared member-elect of 10th Kwara state House of Assembly in the 2023 Kwara state House of Assembly elections.[6]

Rukayat is a member of leading Pro Democracy group, Kwara Must Change, which is one of the leading groups that spearheaded the Otoge political revolution in 2019. She operated as internal publicity secretary of the group. The Kwara Must Change mentored, sponsored and promoted her candidature, being the organization that champion advocacy for gender inclusion in the state. In 2019, the group demanded for a minimum of 50% cabinet positions for women, which the state government adopted.