Get to know Nigeria’s first female Major General who looked after the army’s health
A year after returning to Nigeria from the United Kingdom in 1971, Aderonke Kale joined the army where she went on to have a fruitful career.
On Monday, 31 July 1939, the build-up to the Second World War on the Eastern Europe front was getting underway, but this date also had another significance. It marked the birth of Nigeria’s first female Major General, Aderonke Kale, who has now passed having clocked 84.
According to reports, the former army officer died in London, the United Kingdom on Wednesday, 11 November 2023, and over in her home country, she is being mourned. The deceased who is the mother of the former Statistician-General of National Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, had a very active life leading as a pioneer.
For this reason, President Bola Tinubu through a statement that was reportedly released by a spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale recognised her achievements describing her as one who “embodied the courage, professionalism, capacity, and resilience of the Nigerian woman.”
“She was a towering figure” adds the president who also saw “an inimitable role model” in her. Getting into her past life to know her better is to picture the start of a medical career in psychiatry. It began with studies at the University College which later became the University of Ibadan, and then she moved to London for a short while.
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A year after returning to Nigeria in 1971, Aderonke Kale joined the army where she went on to have a fruitful career. Around this time, it was quite uncommon to see a woman take an active role in the military, and so looking back many decades on, the women who came after her find themselves with multiple positive examples to draw an experience from.
Being born to a pharmacist father and a teaching mum positioned the deceased for the greatness she has achieved. What is perhaps quite notable throughout her career span was deputising as a commander in the Nigerian Army Medical Corps in the year 1990. After this came her rank as a brigadier-general, and soon after the first female general in West Africa.
All that history had to be entered into a book which is why there is a biography about her that was launched on Thursday, 22 July 2021 at the Agip Recital Hall in Lagos. Part of the guests at the event was the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo as the chairman of the occasion; and the book reviewer was Dr Oby Ezekwesili who had the task of uncovering the veil shielding a life that has been well lived.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
