The first female officer in Nigeria to hold the rank of Major-General (two-star general) in the Army or any of the three branches of the Nigerian Armed Forces—the Navy and Air Force—is General Aderonke Kale. Kale studied in Kuru, the Plateau state’s National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS SEC12), in 1990. Following her graduation from Kuru, general Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, the military president, awarded her a colonel’s diploma in 1990. Kale also went back to her job as the commanding officer at the Military Hospital in Benin, Edo state.
She was then sent to Lagos State, where she worked as the Nigerian Army Medical Corps’ deputy commandant. Later, she was elevated to the rank of brigadier general, making history as the country’s first female one-star general. The first female brigadier general was Kale. A position that the British Army appointed.
On the other hand, she reports to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in her capacity as the corps’ commandant regarding the effectiveness and caliber of the nursing, dental, and medical care that Nigerian Army soldiers get. Her induction as the first female Major General in Nigerian history in 1994 set records both in Nigeria and throughout West Africa. She was responsible for managing psychological issues among Nigerian Army members in addition to other administrative and managerial tasks. 1996 saw the general Sani Abacha regime’s retirement.
According to reports, Kale retired with honors, and to this day, many Nigerian women, particularly those in the military, look up to her as a guide. She retired with a group of people from her geopolitical zone, and some observers have characterized her retirement as an ethnic purge by Abacha in the context of a purported coup allegedly orchestrated by Lt. General Oladipo Diya of the Yoruba ethnic group.
Major General Aderonke Kale died at 84.
