MAJOR-GENERAL ADERONKE KALẸ: YORÙBÁ WOMAN BREAKING STEREOTYPES SINCE 1970s
Major-General Aderonke Kale was a Psychiatrist trained at the University of Ibadan and the University of London, she joined the Nigerian Army in 1972 and quickly became a colonel and deputy commander of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps in 1990.
She was later promoted to brigadier-general, becoming the first female general in West Africa. By 1994 she became the first female Major-general in Nigeria and the whole of West Africa.
Later she became director of the entire Nigerian Medical Corps and was its Chief Medical Officer until 1996. This was the first time in the history of the Nigerian Army that a woman was given responsibility for the healthcare of all Nigerian soldiers at all levels in preparation for and during war. She retired in 1997.
She passed away on November 8, 2023, at the age of 84 and was laid to rest at St James Anglican Church in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
Her son Dr. Yemi Kale was the former Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics.
