Before entering the senate, Grace Folashade Bent was political adviser to the PDP National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, Assistant Producer, NTA Kaduna, and managing director of Jack Ventures Nigeria.
In this role, she was involved in controversy over an extension of permission for gas flaring granted to oil companies by president Umaru Yar'Adua without consultation with the Senate.
[8] In March 2009, Senator Bent opposed the establishment of a Desert Control Commission on the basis that this would subsume or duplicate the functions of the national committee on ecological problems.
[9] In September 2009, Grace Folashade Bent wrote a formal letter to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero, protesting the excessive felling of trees for road construction.
[12] While the question was being reviewed, a judge ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove Barata's name from the list of candidates and replace it with Bent.