
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola’s record in leadership positions held across board in the last twenty-seven years has been adjudged as extraordinaire.
Evidently, it wasn’t by chance but for his ancestral heritage.
Not only that his grandfather, Chief Buraimoh Olaleye Tairu of blessed memory, served Egbaland as the Balogun of Ilugun (1906 – 1913) and Otun Egba (1907 – 1913) concurrently, the late community leader was an active member of Egba United Government (EUG).
EUG, established in 1893, was one of the phenomena that characterized Yoruba people as “the most urbanised Africans of precolonial times” in terms of socialisation, civilization and structural organisation.
Sixty-two years later when Sarafa’s father, Alhaji (Chief) Ibrahim Isola Tairu, was installed as Olórí (Head) of Ilugun Muslims, Baba Isale (Patron) of Oke-Ona Muslims and Otun Alhajis in Egbaland in 1975, the young fifteen years old Sarafa Tunji Isola was handed a Sword symbolises a staff of office which identified him as a heir to a reputable lineage of leadership in the whole of Egba nation.
Thus, Ambassador Sarafa Isola typically becomes a born leader with an inheritance which could be described as “finesse traits of governance”.
Growing up promisingly under the roof of Chief Ibrahim Isola Tairu and Hajia Amudalat Ajiun Isola, both of Abeokuta, being his biological father and mother, Sarafa Isola began his formal education and successfully attained an impressive career.
In 1997, he was elected the Chairman of Abeokuta North LGA, at the fourth attempt, and was subsequently elected the Chairman of the Conference of Local Government Chairmen in Ogun State.
He later became the Coordinator of South-west Local Government Chairmen.
In 1999, Sarafa was the Special Assistant to the Honourable Minister of State for Finance.
In 2002, Ambassador Isola was invited by the USA Department of State on a study tour of the USA financial systems through the International Visitors Programme.
The tour took him to the Department of State, Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Bank – New York, New Jersey, University of Texas, Commodity Exchange – Chicago, Bank of America – Arizona, Silicon Valley/San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In 2003, he was appointed the Secretary to Ogun State Government.
In 2007, Ambassador Isola was appointed Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In 2021, Sarafa was appointed the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom.
He later became the Chairman Accreditation Committee of the Commonwealth.
Ambassador Isola has represented Nigeria in bilateral and multilateral engagements in the United States of America, United5 Kingdom, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Malta, Czech Republic, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Senegal, Togo, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Rwanda, Mali, Gambia, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’ Ivoire.
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola is happily married with children.
Education:
Sarafa Tunji Isola graduated from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, England in 1981.
He attended the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, USA, and the University of Ilorin.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.
Sarafa started his working career as a Lecturer in Marketing, Statistics & Economics at the Federal College of Education, Katsina in 1983.