Folayegbe Akintunde-Ighodalo (17 December 1923 – 14 February 2005) was a Nigerian civil servant and activist. She was the first Nigerian woman to become a

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil s ...

in Nigeria.

Life

Felicity Akintunde was born in Okeigbo in

Ondo State Ondo State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Oǹdó) is a state in southwestern Nigeria. It was created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. It borders Ekiti State to the north, Kogi State to the northeast, Edo State to the east, Delta State ...

in 1923. Her extended family believed in traditional

Yoruba religion The Yoruba religion (Yoruba: Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), or Isese, comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practice of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in present-day Southwestern Nigeria, which comprises the majority of Oyo, Og ...

while her parents were Christian. She was initially educated in Nigeria where her ambition was to go to university and take a degree. She obtained teaching qualifications in 1943 and she taught until 1948. She was then allowed to travel to London for one year where she would need to be content with a diploma, and not a degree, from the

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...

which was part of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

. In London, she became interested in student politics and particularly in the

West African Students' Union The West African Students' Union (WASU), founded in London, England, in 1925 and active into the 1960s,"History o ...

where she was elected the second female vice-president in 1953. In the same year, she was elected the founding President of the Nigerian Women's League of Great Britain. Her new position took her to British political party conferences where she made new connections and she met

Margaret Ekpo Chief Margaret Ekpo (27 July 1914 – 21 September 2006) was a Nigerian women's rights activist and social mobilizer who was a pioneering female politician in the country's First Republic and a leading member of a class of traditional Nigerian ...

and Comfort Tanimowo Ogunlesi when they visited London to help negotiate Nigeria's new constitution. They were the only two Nigerian women involved in this important stage of creating an independent Nigeria. She was assisted particularly by her friendship with the socialist and feminist Mary Sutherland. She rejected her first name of Felicity and adopted the Yoruba name Folayegbe and its diminutive Fola. She abandoned her course and her agreement with her funding body and took a job with the post office. With her wages, she was able to fund her own studies. In June 1954, she obtained her ambition of a degree, in economics. She married and during that time she gave birth to her first child and she was recruited to assist in the Nigeriaisation of

Northern Nigeria Northern Nigeria was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. In 1962 it acquired the territory of the British No ...

. She saw some friction with British managers in the civil service but she worked in a number of ministries. In 1968, she was the first Nigerian woman to be a

permanent secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil s ...

in the Nigerian civil service. She was active in many women's organisations although her job in the civil service prevented her from taking the lead until after her retirement. After she retired she was more active and she also started a poultry farm which turned into a major business. She was a director of Nigeria Airways and other companies and was on a board of enquiry into student violence. In 2001, LaRay Denzer wrote her biography, ''Folayegbe M. Akintunde-Ighodalo: a public life''. Akintunde-Ighodalo died in 2005, at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akintunde-Ighodalo., Folayegbe 1923 births People from Ondo State Nigerian government officials Nigerian women activists 2005 deaths Yoruba women activists Nigerian educators Yoruba women educators Alumni of the University of London Nigerian expatriates in the United Kingdom