[2] Her father was Chief Minister when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and held leadership positions that until a coup d'état in the year 2000.
[4] Ganilau joined her husband and her younger sister, Senator Adi Koila Nailatikau, in opposing the government's controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill,[5] which proposed the establishment of a Commission empowered, subject to presidential approval, to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the coup d'état of May 2000.
She thought it "ridiculous" that the government was trying to "excuse people involved in the coup", even after the Fiji Week reconciliation ceremonies that ran from 4 to 11 October 2004, which she called a "failed presentation."
In a further statement on 25 July, Ganilau said that the 2000 coup had not been spontaneous, but a premeditated and carefully planned act, which she accused some members of the present Senate of knowing about in advance.
The Fiji Times quoted Ganilau on 8 January 2006 as criticizing the Qarase government for supporting the writing of an independent biography of the life of her father, while working to release from prison the very people who had deposed him.
Ganilau was elected Chairperson of the Lau Provincial Council's on 11 July 2011, succeeding her brother, Roko Tevita Uluilakeba Mara.