By Williams Amofokhai
President Bola Tinubu has mourned as Nigeria’s first female Major General Aderonke Kale (Rtd) dies at the age of 84.
The Alarmee reports that Kale died on Wednesday in London from an undisclosed ailment.
Kale, born in 1939 was a Nigerian army psychiatrist who became the first female major-general in the Nigerian Army.
She rose to command the Nigerian Army Medical Corps.
Aderonke Kale trained as a medical doctor at University College, which later became the University of Ibadan. Kale then specialized in psychiatry at the University of London.
She was inspired to pursue psychiatry by Thomas Adeoye Lambo, Africa’s first professor of psychiatry. She worked briefly in Britain and returned to Nigeria in 1971.
A year later in 1972, she joined the Nigerian Army. This was a very rare decision for women in those days, particularly those at such a high professional level.
She was a colonel and deputy commander of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps by 1990. She was later promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, becoming the first female general in West Africa. Kale was then promoted to major-general in 1994 and became the first Nigerian woman to achieve that rank. She was also the first female major-general in West Africa.
Her role was initially as chief psychiatrist to the army. Kale later 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.
Reacting to her death, Tinubu sympathised with the Kale family, the Nigerian Army, and the society of medical practitioners in Nigeria on the passing of Major-General Aderonke Kale (rtd).
The President described Major-General Kale as a pace-setter and her death as a painful loss to the country.
“Major-General Aderonke Kale was a pioneer in her field. She embodied the courage, professionalism, capacity, and resilience of the Nigerian woman. She thrived and conquered where many feared to tread. She was a towering figure; an inimitible role model,” the President said.
President Tinubu prayed for the repose of the soul of the late officer and encouraged her beloved family to take solace in the peerless legacy she left behind.
Major-General Kale was a recipient of many awards for her contributions to the field of medicine. She was also a philanthropist who positively impacted many lives.
