President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday joined Nigerians in mourning the death of Major General Aderonke Kale, Nigeria’s first female Major General in the Nigerian Army.
General Aderonke Kale, who joined the Nigerian Army in 1972 and retired in 1997, died in London on Wednesday, November 8, aged 84.
President Tinubu, who also sympathized with the Kale family, the Nigerian Army, and the society of medical practitioners in Nigeria, “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.”
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.
An alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), President of the Alumni Association of National Institute (AANI), expressed deep sorrow on the death of General Kale.
National Publicity Secretary of AANI, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman (rtd) said in a statement that Ambassador Okafor conveyed his sincere condolences to the late Major General Kale’s family, AANI members, and the entire nation, terming her passing an “irreparable loss.
“AANI and indeed the nation will continue to remember the remarkable legacy of the iconic Major General Aderonke Kale (rtd) mni, who had been a trailblazer in Nigeria’s medical and military history. May her gentle soul continue to rest in peace, Amen.”
Kale was born on July 31, 1939, General Kale was also the first female Commander of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps (NAMC).
Born of a pharmacist father and while mother who was a teacher, General Kale trained as a medical doctor at University College, which later became the University of Ibadan (UI). She then proceeded to University of London where she specialised in Psychiatry, inspired Thomas Lambo, Africa’s first Professor of Psychiatry.
Working briefly in Britain, General Kale returned to Nigeria in 1971, joining the Army a year later in 1972.
By 1990, she was a Colonel and Deputy Commander of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps, She was 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 and also the first female Major-General in West Africa. She retired from the Army in 1997.
She was married to Professor Oladele Kale, a distinguished Professor of Preventive and Social Medicine, and was a mother of five sons.
One of her sons, Yemi Kale, became the Statistician-General of Nigeria.
In 2011, shortly after the introduction of females into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) programme, the female hall of residence was named after Kale.