List of Nigeria's First Female Trailblazer

This is a list of Nigerian's first female trailblazers and their accomplishment.

Sandra Aguebor is Nigeria’s first lady mechanic. She studied mechanical engineering at the Auchi Polytechnic graduating in 1991 as the first Nigerian woman to be certified as an auto-mechanical engineer. Sandra opened her own garage in Lagos, established a solid customer base and began to bring other women into her profession. Today, she is the founder of Lady Mechanic Initiative which trains females mechanics. She also launched an After School Club Project, in partnership with the MacAthur Foundation aimed at grooming young female public school students in Lagos State for gainful employment.

Prof. Grace Alele-Williams was the first Nigerian woman to become the vice-chancellor of a Nigerian University. She studied at Queens College, University College, Ibadan and then the University of Vermont, before receiving a PhD in Mathematics education from the University of Chicago. It has also been widely circulated that she made history as the first Nigerian woman to be awared a doctorate. She was a post doctoral research fellow at the Department of Education, University of Ibadan after which she was appointed a professor of mathematics at the University of Lagos.

Professor Adetoun Ogunseye is first female Professor In Nigeria. She attended Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos.  At the University of Ibadan (where she was the first female student), she received the prize for the best female graduating student and got a scholarship to proceed to Cambridge. She became a Professor of Library in 1973 and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Nigeria Book Fair Trust in  2012.

Agbani Darego is a former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria best known as the first native Sub-Saharan African to win Miss World. She has gone on to judge numerous pageants, and fashion and modelling competitions including Miss World 2014, Miss England 2002, Mr. Scotland 2002,and Elite Model Look Nigeria 2012 and 2014. In 2010 she launched a style and fashion reality show Stylogenic on Nigerian television. Three years later Agbani showed us her entrepreneurial side with the launch of her denim range, AD by Agbani Darego, which includes jeans, dresses, sunglasses and bags. She also studied Psychology at New York University and graduated in 2012.

Chief ‘Folake Solanke (SAN) is the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the first Nigerian female lawyer to wear the silk gown as Senior Counsel. She is the first Commissioner of Western State and is a former Chairperson of the Western Nigeria Television Broadcasting Corporation (WNTBC). Solanke has received numerous awards, including the National honour of the Commander of the Order of Niger and the International Bar Association’s Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award.

On July 16, 2012, Justice Aloma Mukhtar made history by becoming the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria. She was also conferred with the National Award of GCON (the second highest honour in the land) by His Excellency. But Justice Mukhtar is a lady of many firsts. In January 1977, she was made a judge of the Kano High Court. Making her the third female judge in the history of Nigeria, the first female judge from the North and being 32 years of age, she was the youngest judge in the country.

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993) : was a Nigerian author best known as Flora Nwapa. Her novel Efuru (1966) is among the first English-language novels by a woman from Africa. She has been called the mother of modern African literature and following her creation of Tata press- is also known as the first African woman publisher.