JOSEPHINE OKWUEKELEKE TOLEFE, THE FIRST FEMALE COMMISSIONED OFFICER AND CAPTAIN IN THE NIGERIAN ARMY 

Did you know that Captain Josephine Okwuekeleke Tolefe was the first female commissioned officer in the Nigerian Army, and also the first female military officer and the first female to attain the rank of an Army Captain in Nigeria?

Captain Josephine Okwuekeleke Tolefe was born December 15, 1931 in Ogwashi-Ukwu, the southern part of Aniocha in Delta State, Nigeria. She attended Midwives Training College, High Coombe Surrey, United Kingdom to study Nursing and graduated as a registered nurse under the General Nursing Council for England and Wales in August, 1956.

Josephine was a professional nurse but she decided to join the Nigerian Army because she was impressed by the look of the women in the British Army and the way they defended their country.

Although Josephine was celebrated, but she and her female colleagues faced many challenges as regards to their gender. In an interview with Vanguard she recalled one of such challenges she experienced in the Nigerian Army.

“In our time, women did not hold sway. We did not know where to turn because every civil servant in the country had the belief that if you work for so long, at the end of it, you would get a retirement that was befitting. But as females in the Army in those days, that was not clear."

Josephine’s stay in the Army was unfortunately cut short by the Nigerian civil war that happened in 1967.

“Nigeria/Biafra Civil War forced me out of the Army. I was delighted to support our country, but if it came down to fighting your brother or even killing someone who was a friend or brother with whom you had gone to school, you would have shot him before realizing that you had shot the wrong guy. As a result, we realized that as soldiers, we needed to pray even harder for the war to end because it was not going to help us and had not helped us."

The retired officer, who was trained as a professional nurse at the Midwives Training College in High Coombe, Surrey, United Kingdom, was granted a Short Service Commission on 7th February 1961 in the rank of Second Lieutenant with seniority in the rank with effect from the same date, and she was the first female Commissioned Officer in the Nigerian Army. On the 7th of February 1961, she was promoted to Second Lieutenant (on Commission), Lieutenant on the 9th of Mary 1961, and Captain on the 1st of June 1963. 

She voluntarily retired from the service on the 5th of February 1967. She passed on in 2014 at the age of 83 years.

Sources:

https://ng.opera.news/ng/en/politics/amp/a07ca763656de347ae3b12f10ef4c772