The first female Major-General to come from Nigeria, Aderonke Kale (Rtd) has died at the age of 84.
Kale was said to have passed away after an undisclosed ailment in London, the United Kingdom (UK) on Wednesday.
Her death was announced in a statement by the president of the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI), Ambassador Emmanuel Obi Okafor on Thursday.
Okafor in the statement described Kale’s demise as an “irreparable loss”, with the AANI president 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,” he said.
“May her gentle soul continue to rest in peace, Amen,” the statement signed by the former army spokesperson, S. K. Usman, read.
Kale 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.
She 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.
Kale was inspired to pursue psychiatry by Africa’s first professor of psychiatry, Thomas Adeoye Lambo.
She was married to a professor of preventive and social medicine, Oladele Kale, and they both had five sons.
