Nigeria publishes memoirs of one of the country’s first policewomen — Premium Times Nigeria
Nigeria has published a book by former Deputy Commissioner of Police Stella Okuyiga about the first women in the country’s police force. In her memoir, Origin of Policewomen in Nigeria and My Journey in the Nigeria Police Force (1955–1986), she described the recruitment, training and service of the first group of 20 policewomen, which she joined in October 1955.
As Premium Times Nigeria reports, Okuyiga, who then bore the surname Opuiyo, arrived with 19 other women at the Southern Police College, now the Police College in Ikeja. The pioneers underwent six months of training and became the first women officially admitted to the Nigeria Police Force.
Campaign for the right to serve
Before this, service in the Nigerian police was effectively available only to men. In the 1940s and 1950s, women’s rights activists Oyinkansola Abayomi, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and Elizabeth Adekogbe demanded that women be involved in state institutions and the state decision-making process.
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In 1954, Margaret Ekpo, a member of the Eastern House of Assembly, raised the issue of admitting women to the police in the legislative body. The following year, the colonial authorities placed newspaper advertisements recruiting female candidates. Okuyiga, a native of Okrika in present-day Rivers State, became the first woman from the old Rivers State to join the Nigeria Police Force.
Testimony of a participant
Okuyiga retired in 1986 at the age of 56 with the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police after more than 30 years of service. In the book, she used official documents, personal diaries and her own recollections. Part of her archive, including photographs, was lost during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970, when she was trying to move her belongings to Port Harcourt.
The article notes that nearly 50,000 women now serve in the Nigeria Police Force, accounting for about 15% of its personnel. Women work at police stations, state commands, specialised, intelligence and operational units, and also take part in peacekeeping operations. The book was published by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, AFRICMIL.
