Tejumade Alakija (17 May 1925 – August, 2013) was a Nigerian civil servant who rose to be the first female head of

Oyo State Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the east by Osun ...

's civil service.

Life

Princess Alakija Tejumade was born on the 17, May 1925 in Ile-Ife, Oyo State, South-westhern part of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. Alakija Tejumade want to Aiyetoro Primary and Central Schools, Ile-Ife. Her father was Sir

Adesoji Aderemi Oba Sir Titus Martins Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi (Atobatele I), alias Adesoji Aderemi, (15 November 1889 – 3 July 1980), was a Nigerian political figure and Yoruba traditional ruler as the Ooni (King) of Ife (or ''Ilé-Ifẹ̀'', as it is p ...

, who was the

Ooni of Ife The Ooni of Ile-Ife (Ọọ̀ni of Ilè-Ifẹ̀) is the traditional ruler of Ile-Ife and the spiritual head of the Yoruba people. The Ooni dynasty existed before the reign of Oduduwa which historians have argued to have been between the 7th-9 ...

. She trained to be a teacher and passed her PGCE at Oxford University in 1950 to 1951. She joined the Nigerian civil service where she was directed to teach. As a Teacher She started her teaching career at Queen’s School, Ede, Osun State, and later transferred to the new Government Girls’ Secondary Grammar School from 1951 to 1953. During her career as a teacher, she founded a school named Girls' Secondary Grammar School in 1953. She also worked at the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Trade and Industries as the Assistant Secretary and was appointed as Training Officer-in Charge of the region’s Public Service Training Programme and secretary of some important commissions. Respectively from 1960 to 1964, and later, she became Chief Investment Officer in the Ministry of Trade and Industries in charge of Industrial Promotions from 1969 to 1972. Alakija Tejumade also served in some key ministries, such as Ministry of Health as the Deputy Permanent Secretary in 1978, and also in Ministry of Education as Permanent Secretary in 1979, before becoming the head of state civil service in Oyo State. She rose to be the first female head of

's civil service. From 1993 to 1997, she was Pro-Chancellor of the

University of Abuja The University of Abuja is a tertiary institution in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It was established in January 1988 (under Decree No. 110 of 1992 as amended) as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning ...

. Princess Alakija died in

University College Hospital, Ibadan University College Hospital, Ibadan is a federal teaching hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria attached to the University of Ibadan. History The University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan was established by an August 1952 Act of Parliament in response to ...

in 2013.Oyo’s First Female Head of Service, Princess Tejumade Alakija Dies at 88!
23 August 2013, TheStreetJournal.org, Retrieved 15 February 2016

References

1925 births 2013 deaths Nigerian civil servants Nigerian women civil servants Nigerian educators Nigerian women educators Nigerian women academics Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Abuja people 20th-century Nigerian politicians Oyo State politicians Yoruba women educators Yoruba educators Yoruba women in politics Nigerian schoolteachers History of women in Nigeria Yoruba princesses 20th-century Nigerian women politicians Nigerian princesses St Anne's School, Ibadan alumni People from Oyo State Yoruba people {{Nigeria-politician-stub