First Female Major General in the Nigerian Army,Aderonke Kale has died.
Kale died in London on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at age of 84.
E. O. Okafor, President of the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI), confirmed Kale’s demise in a statement on Thursday.
Okafor described her passing as an “irreparable loss”, adding that burial arrangements would be announced by her family.
“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,” the statement issued by S. K. Usman, former army spokesperson, reads.
Kale who was born on July 31, 1939, trained as a medical doctor at the University of Ibadan before specialising in psychiatry at the University of London.
The former major-general worked briefly in England before returning to join the Nigerian army in 1972.
She rose through the ranks in the army, becoming a colonel and deputy commander of the Nigerian army medical corps by 1990.
In 1994, she was promoted to major-general and retired from the army in 1997.
Aderonke was married to Oladele Kale, a professor of preventive and social medicine, and was a mother of five sons, including Yemi Kale, former statistician-general of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Friday described the death of Nigeria’s first female Major-General, Aderonke Kale, as a painful loss to the country.
Tinubu, in a condolence statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Ajuri Ngelale, also sympathised with the Kale family, the Nigerian Army, and the society of medical practitioners in Nigeria on the passing away of one of their own.
Tinubu stated that as a pioneer in her field, the late Major General ” embodied the courage, professionalism, capacity, and resilience of the Nigerian woman”
The President 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.
