Aduke Alakija
Aduke Alakija | |
|---|---|
| Member of Nigerian Delegation to United Nations | |
| In office 1961–1965 | |
| Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Chamber of Commerce | |
| In office 1967–1967 | |
| Nigerian Ambassador to Sweden | |
| In office 1984–1987 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jaiyeola Aduke Alakija March 1921 |
| Died | March 2016 (aged 95) |
| Nationality | (nephew) |
Jaiyeola Aduke Alakija (March 1921 – March 2016) was a
Nigerian welfare officer, lawyer and diplomat who was the country's ambassador to Sweden from 1984 to 1987. She was also a former president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers
.
Life
Alakija was born to the family of
Glasgow University but then transferred to the London School of Economics to study social science. On returning to Nigeria, she worked as a welfare officer in the Lagos judiciary.[1][2] There she initiated the creation of a juvenile court and caused the establishment of a number of girls clubs in Lagos,[3] as well as assisting in the formation of the Lagos branch of the British Leprosy Relief Association. In 1949, she left Nigeria to study law, qualifying as a barrister in 1953. Thereafter, she set up a law practice with Miss Gloria Rhodes and worked in the chambers of John Idowu Conrad Taylor. She briefly left law to work as a Social Welfare Officer, becoming the first African woman to hold the position in Nigeria.[2]
In Alakija's professional career, she was an assistant to the general manager of
Mobil Oil, and later became a director and legal advisor to Mobil Oil Nigeria in 1957.[3] In 1961, Mobil won a concession for oil exploration in Nigeria, and Alakija later became a director in this new venture. In 1967, she was the executive secretary of the Lagos State Chamber of Commerce. From 1961 to 1965, she was a member of Nigeria's delegation to the United Nations
.
Alakija was a co-founder of New Era Girls College, a member of the
International Women Society of Nigeria and member of Soroptimist International
.
She held an honorary degree from Barnard College.
References
- ^ "Alakija, Aduke". 2005. In The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography, edited by Jennifer S. Uglow, Frances Hinton, and Maggy Hendry. Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
- ^ a b Balogun, Hairat (April 12, 2016). "Ambassador Jaiyeola Aduke Alakija, A Toast and Tribute". Thisday. Lagos.
- ^ a b Little, Kenneth. African Women in Towns: An Aspect of Africa's Social Revolution. p. 203.