By FELICITY DARVILLE

It was Christmas night 2019 when the bass of the goatskin drums, the ringing of cowbells and the bellowing of horns reverberated straight to her soul. Adorned in a beautiful costume, she rushed on Bay Street. An unquenchable urge brought her home to Bahamian soil. This was more than a rush for fun. This was a rush for destiny; a rush for a successful future fuelled by the spirit of the ancestors. She had prayed to God for wisdom and guidance before setting about on her campaign to become City Councilwoman for Miami Gardens. But before launching her campaign, she remembered her father’s personal charge to her, to never forget her roots.

By Boxing Day, Shannan Ighodaro (nee Hanna) was back in Florida ready to launch a campaign that would lead her to a successful win with a record 63 percent of the votes to represent the people of the illustrious Miami Gardens. Shannan, affectionately and popularly known as Lady Shannan, ran her “Progress” campaign and won the primary elections for Seat 3 in the City Council. She went on to win the general elections with over 8,000 votes and the highest percentage win on November 3, 2020.

“On Christmas Day, I watched my children open their gifts, and then I headed to Nassau for a whirlwind two-day visit,” she told me.

“I remember having a yearn and my ancestors calling me back home; I left The Bahamas at the age of 23. I was being called back to the island shores where I found peace and comfort. I got my costume made, and I ‘blinged out’ my shoes myself, and I was able to rush. I am a diehard Saxons in ya belly! But I couldn’t rush with the Saxons last minute. They don’t play dat! But I was able to rush with the Sting and I had a great time!

“My obedience was better than sacrifice and it gave me the push I needed to come back and campaign and I conquered. I believe if I didn’t place my foot on Bahamian soil... (I may not have been as successful). When I came back to Miami Gardens, I posted my photo in my Junkanoo costume and it spread across social media. It was a clarion call to Bahamians all across the United States, and I was ok to run after that.

“The sounds and the sights of the drums hit my soul and I came back fired up and ready to go. Those same Junkanoo sounds ushered in the first Bahamian elected in the City of Miami Gardens. It started with my roots and ended with my roots.”

Her roots sprang in 1971 when she was born on Palmetto Avenue into a large family. Her mother is Faydora Hanna nee Bullard from Forbes Hill, Exuma. Her father, Reginald Hanna was an Acklins native, proud of his Hanna, Heastie, Tynes heritage. Shannan was the third of her mother’s six children. But her mother was married to her father who was 13 years her senior and had children prior to marriage, and so she was born into a family with many children.

“I was always exposed to a large family,” she recalls.

“It was difficult and challenging in terms of space, but those were the years that really allowed me to travail but triumph. I needed to work hard. There were financial challenges, my parents having 10 or 11 mouths to feed, but they did the best they could.”

At the age of 20, Shannan landed a job at BaTelCo working the switchboard. A determined and assertive young lady, she worked her way up and received promotions that put her in the company of educated peers.

“This was the first time I was exposed to young women who looked like me, and a handful of them were college-educated,” she said.

“I wanted to be like them and push the envelope. It was a choice between keeping a good job and taking the risk to go to school... there is always an inherent risk. I calculated in my mind that if I were to be promoted to where I wanted to be, I would literally have to work there for 30 years. I could go to college and shave that time off considerably. I took the risk of the unknown.

“BaTelCo was good to me. I was awarded an unpaid leave of absence to go to the United States to study at Florida Memorial University (FMU) in Miami Gardens - the only Historically Black College/ University (HBCU) in Florida.”

As Lady Shannan reflected on her life during our interview, she perceived her journey thus far as having three stages - planting, blooming and grooming.

In her planting stage, she thought about her roots - not just being an island girl, but spiritual roots having been raised in a strict Seventh Day Adventist household. During those formidable years, she was taught the virtue and value of prayer from the age of five. As she continued to grow at the homestead in Montel Heights, her mother would have her children read from the giant household Bible and from encyclopaedias that broadened her mind to a world beyond The Bahamas. This would prepare her for her grooming stage when she took a leap of faith and with two semesters’ worth of school fees saved up from her BaTelCo job, she went off to obtain a university degree.

She recalls fond memories of a young lady coming to bloom in a new country: “God placed me at a university where it wasn’t a culture shock. I was among people who I felt I could gel with. This became a pivotal place or force of the cultivating or grooming stage of my life. The pieces I needed to stand on were put in place... the young girl at the age of ten dreaming of travelling abroad.

“Education became so important and so was mentorship. I met great female and male mentors. Among them, the late great Bahamian giant Dr Robert B Ingraham a former FMU professor, school board member and Mayor for the city of Opa Locka. I was exposed to this new culture and new way of life and having to grow up and make my own decisions.”

“During my last year at FMU, I met the man who would eventually become my husband. Being at the university, I had to learn to think of myself as a leader. I was a little older and more mature than other freshman students. I had to trust God in the unknown... take a risk and do something new and different.”

Shannan graduated FMU as Magna Cum Laude with honours and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1998. She returned to The Bahamas to fulfil her commitment to BaTelCo where she worked for a year. With the encouragement and support of the company and her family, Shannan returned to America and attended Nova Southeastern University where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Business Administration.

“This exposed me to a global mindset and way of thinking,” she said, “As I met young CEOs from all over the world... in their 20s and 30s.”

After graduating, Shannan spent eight years working in Corporate America, first at an engineering firm and then at one of the top African American accounting firms, Watson Rice. In 2002, she married the love of her life, Dr Erhabor Ighodaro. He was an essential part of her grooming phase. She considers him her spiritual soulmate and together, they have broken barriers and made history in the very city they met in. Both are immigrants - Erhabor, a Nigerian American and Shannan a Bahamian American - proud parents of two 15-year-old twin girls - Esosa and Idia.

Erharbor was the first Nigerian American to be elected in all of South Florida. He served as a Miami Gardens Councilman for eight years, and is also a former Vice Mayor. He is a pastor, professor and businessman. He left office in August and Shannan took the helm in November. Their last name, Ighodaro, means “forward way of thinking”, and lady Shannan says they are progressive and have put in a lot of work.

The Ighodaros are the first husband and wife to be elected consecutively in the same city in the history of south Florida - and it’s the city where they first met - the largest African American city in South Florida, Miami Gardens. They are an inspiration to many and they remain so successful and have garnered tremendous support from the residents because they know them. They are accessible, working on the ground and in the communities to make proactive changes that people can see and feel. They extend their hearts to the people and have found ways to bring in the support they need to make a difference in their community.

Lady Shannan considers herself a public servant more than a politician. She says the community is at the heart of everything she does.

“Politics gives you access to the people, the information and the resources, and how they are to be allocated,” she explained.

“A politician may think more about resources and spending. A servant will give the people the power of the information and let the people fight for what they want. I am only a politician because the people put their trust in me.”

She is the owner of her own marketing and public relations agency, Oracle Consulting Group, LLC and she is a sought-after brand consultant. She successfully branded the United Nations’ “Think Local, Act Global” rural urban integration initiative. She also devised the Miami Dade County Public Schools “Read to Lead” programme and the Kids CLASS programme, a national initiative to harness the talent of youth in underserved communities.

In this a beautiful blooming stage, Lady Shannan represents a quintessential woman who can be a wife, mother, entrepreneur, business owner and politician: “I have a duty to understand my worth and my brand as a wife, mother, woman of God and mentor inspiring the next generation.”

“I had to first understand who I am and find my own space, being the wife of a powerful man who is an ordained reverend. I had to not let naysayers put fear in me or force me to think less of myself. I could be a first lady in the church and still aspire to more. There were people saying to me - especially women - ‘We need a voice... you should run!’ I had to develop a strategic mindset and carefully put together the pieces of who I believe I am. In time, I did that.”

While enjoying her first year in office, Lady Shannan knows the importance of documenting it all. She is currently writing her autobiography. In 2019, she and her husband published the book Word is Enough, based on three “D principles” - discern, declare and decide. Find the book and lots of inspirational and motivational content at wordisenough.com. It was her husband’s third book and her first. Lady Shannan is enjoying her golden jubilee years as she is now 50 years old.

She mentors women from all around the world. She believes her faith in God, being obedient, and having a marriage of 18 years where they do not “compete, but complement” each other are keys to her success. The city of Miami Gardens is also 18-years-old, which means their marriage - and the city - were planted, groomed and bloomed simultaneously.

She recalls the day she put on her cobalt blue suit to honour the waters of her home in beautiful Bahamas: “I put on my City Council pin and my twin daughters were watching me get ready. They said, ‘Mom, is that the same pin daddy used to wear as councilman?’ I said yes! We looked at each other and burst into laughter and embraced. They understood what that meant, and now I know they understand what it takes to be all they can be.”