[1] Her mother, Ro Lady Lala Mara (1931–2004), held the title of Roko Tui Dreketi, or Paramount Chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy.
In 1979, during her time as student at Somerville College, Adi Koila graduated from the Oxford University Foreign Service Programme.
The scion of another chiefly family, Ratu Epeli (born 1941) was appointed President of Fiji by the Military-backed regime in 2009 after a distinguished career, serving variously as Commander of the Royal Fiji Military Forces in the 1980s, High Commissioner (equivalent to an ambassador in Commonwealth countries) to the United Kingdom in the 1990s, Deputy Prime Minister in 2000 and 2001, and finally as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006; The Fijian Parliament is one of the few legislative bodies in the world in which a husband and wife have had simultaneous parliamentary careers.
Adi Koila's cabinet career was brought to a sudden end on 19 May 2000, when George Speight, an extreme Fijian nationalist who objected to the presence of Indo-Fijians in the government, seized power, kidnapping Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and most of the Cabinet, including Adi Koila, and forcing her father to resign as president.
In a Senate debate on 30 May 2003, she warned called for a tough stand against sex tourism, saying that it was a form of sexual exploitation and that it led to increasing incidents of child molestation and paedophilia.
Lamenting the downgrading of the marriage commitment, parental authority, and relationships between grandparents and grandchildren, she blamed the breakdown of family values for the increasing crime rate.
Young people would learn self-discipline and would be trained for careers, such as engineering, that would enable them later to contribute to society through voluntary and paid employment, the Fiji Live news service quoted her as saying.
On 25 September 2004, Adi Koila rejected the efforts of Speight and his accomplices Ratu Timoci Silatolu and Josefa Nata to offer an apology to the parliamentarians they had held hostage in the 2000 coup.
Adi Koila added that her refusal to accept any political attempts at reconciliation was motivated by her belief that the "culture of coups" must be discouraged.
Adi Koila expressed anger that Simione Kaitani (whom she accused of making speeches against her father inside the parliamentary complex during the coup) and Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu (whom she accused of having ordered the burning of a property owned by her father, the Matailakeba Cane Farm in Seaqaqa, on 29 July 2000) both now held Cabinet positions, and that former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and former Police Commissioner Isikia Savua, both of whom her late father had accused of involvement in the coup, now either occupied or had been nominated for senior diplomatic posts.
"Because if it were not for the coup they would not be in those positions as the Turaga Bale the Tui Nayau would still be the President and Mr Chaudhry Prime Minister.
Rejecting the criticism, the Prime Minister's spokesman Joji Kotobalavu retaliated by accusing Adi Koila's father, Ratu Mara, of having benefited from the 1987 coups.
He went on to say that the Prime Minister had not benefited from the coup because he had quit a lucrative career in the private sector to "rescue a Fiji in turmoil."
She accused the government of neglecting what she saw as far more important issues, like squatters, unemployment, poverty, and road conditions, in favour of the Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill.
Nailatikau said that some government authorities, who she said were "hell-bent" on promoting the amnesty clauses of the legislation, were creating the impression that there was some connection between the coup perpetrators and themselves.
As the election, which was held on 6–13 May 2006 drew close, she indicated a wish to contest the Lami Open Constituency for the National Alliance Party (NAPF), led by her brother-in-law, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, but withdrew in favour of Ben Padarath, who had already been selected.