Aderonke Kale
Aderonke Kale (31 July 1939 – 8 November 2023) 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.
Quotes
[edit]- I am happy about my promotion to the rank of a rear admiral in the Nigerian Navy and the fact that it is during my lifetime that females are now being recruited into the Nigerian Defense Academy to train as regular combatant officers.
- It was tough training in the Navy Training was tough and the best way I can describe it to you is to multiply what they put you through during National Youth Service Corps by 20 times and then you get an idea of what the training was like. I enjoyed it but wao, it was tough. But the good thing was that at the end of it all you come out fitter than you have ever been in your life.
- You come out more disciplined and you come out with a commitment to keep fit.
- Life was very interesting while I was undergoing my training as a naval officer. First of all, you know I had done NYSC so I had the creamy taste of military training. But the real Navy basic training was much more than that, and the thing is that at the end of it all you know it taught me a lot of discipline and it gave me strength that I didn't know I had, physical strength; so it was very good. Even though the training was not easy, the truth is that after surviving the first few days when you are acheing all over, you actually get used to it. I mean the human body is very resilient and at the same time interesting and you can actually train yourself to get used to it.
- If somebody offends in a squadron they will punish the whole squadron, I couldn't understand it. I was like if somebody offends and the person owns up why should you punish all of us? But one of the instructors told me that look, if you are in a hostile situation may be in a war situation you have to look out for everybody and that the mistake of one person can cause everybody's life because your survival depends on you as a group.
- My journey from United Kingdom to Lagos, took only 6:20hours. The journey was 3000 kilometers to Nigeria. It is a pity that my trip to Iwo from Lagos, a journey of 200 kilometers took six hours”. This was the condition of our infrastructure in Nigeria.
“We need to pray for the development of Nigeria. Cursing and criticizing the country would not help matter. It would only worsen it. Criticism will only bring the country down. Nigerians should not look down on the country.
- We are the changes and we are part of the changes we want in Nigeria.
- Women who want to be up there must work for it. It is not a joke, you must show that you can do it. -At the 100 Years of the Nigerian Woman -Achieving 50/50 by 2020, Lagos, April 2013.
- I had a dream to get to the top of my career and nothing was going to let me go off that dream. Sometimes it looked like a distant dream, sometime it would even fade to a dot in the horizon, sometime I would want to give up but the good thing was that I had a lot of supportive people who believed in me, people who, when the going got really rough, said to me, no, you cannot give up.
- The major challenge, I must be very honest with you, is the fact that you know you meet a lot of men who wonder what you are doing in their territory and you have to spend everyday of your life proving that you should be here. For me there is nothing in this constitution that says I am not a full fledged citizen of this country. I don't see it anywhere, but you see, there are still people who still have issues with that, and such people vent their frustration on you. But you have to be resilient enough and claim your place because nobody is going to give it to you.
