Stella Okuyiga Chronicles Nigeria's First Policewomen

Stella Okuyiga, originally Stella Opuiyo, was among the first women formally recruited into the Nigeria Police Force in 1955, following a campaign led by women’s rights advocates like Oyinkansola Abayomi, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, and Elizabeth Adekogbe. Their efforts in the 1940s and 1950s aimed to challenge the colonial perception that policing was unsuitable for women.

In 1954, Margaret Ekpo argued for women's recruitment in the Eastern House of Assembly, leading to a 1955 advertisement for women to join the police. Okuyiga, then 25, trained at the Southern Police College alongside 19 other women.

This recruitment marked a significant milestone in Nigeria's policing history, occurring nearly a century after formal policing began in 1861. Okuyiga, now 96 and a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police, chronicled her experiences in a memoir that reflects on her role in advancing gender equality in public service during her over three-decade career.