Born on 18 January 1959 in Badagry, Itunu Hotonu was raised without gender limits in an academic home that nurtured ambition and courage. From Architecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to becoming Africa’s first female admiral in the Nigerian Navy, her life redefined leadership, resilience, and possibility.
First Daughter Raised Like a Son
On 18 January 1959, in the coastal city of Badagry, Lagos State, a baby girl was born into an academic household, the first of four daughters. That child, Itunu Tomori, would one day become Rear Admiral Itunu Hotonu, Africa’s first female admiral. But the seeds of that extraordinary life were planted long before any uniform was worn or any rank was earned. They were planted in the deliberately unconventional way her father chose to raise her.
Growing up in a university environment, Itunu’s parents were academics who prized learning and ambition above convention. Her father, in particular, made a conscious decision: his firstborn daughter would not be limited by the expectations society placed on girls. He raised her like a boy. Not out of a denial of her femininity, but out of a refusal to let gender fence in her potential. From teaching her how to repair electrical sockets to putting her behind the wheel of a car, her father showed her, through action rather than mere words, that the world was not divided into what men could do and what women could do, but rather into what one was willing to learn and pursue.
In that childhood home, everyone encouraged her to aim for the highest goals. No dream was too ambitious for the eldest daughter. No profession was closed to her. This environment, rare in its egalitarian boldness for Nigeria in the 1960s and 70s, gave Itunu something many of her peers lacked: an unshaken belief in her own capability.
“It was my father — a father of four beautiful daughters — who encouraged me to study the course of my choice.”
Choosing Architecture, a “Man’s Field”
By the time Itunu was thirteen years old, she had already made her decision. She would become an architect. It was a choice shaped by her strongest academic abilities, mathematics and fine art, and by a certainty about what she was meant to do in the world. Architecture, the art and science of designing spaces where human life unfolds, appealed to her precise and creative mind in equal measure.
Society, of course, had opinions. Architecture was considered a man’s field. The lecture halls were populated almost entirely by men. The profession was dominated by men. The industry was built by men. For a young Nigerian woman to walk into that space and declare her intention to belong there required a certain kind of fearlessness, the kind that can only be grown in a home where a father has already taught his daughter to fix what’s broken.
Itunu went on to study Architecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, one of Nigeria’s most prestigious universities. She was, in most of her classes, the only woman. The isolation was real. On at least one occasion, a fellow student announced that he could not be in a class with a woman. Rather than retreating, Itunu drew energy from the challenge. She completed her degree, then worked for two years in an architect’s office while sitting and passing her professional examinations. She had proven herself in a male-dominated profession. She was only getting started.
“Someone once said ‘I can’t be in a class with a woman.’ That statement encouraged me to give it my best shot.”
The Navy Said Yes
After qualifying as an architect, Itunu made a decision that surprised those around her. She applied to join the Nigerian Army’s Engineering Corps. It was a logical move for someone trained in building and design, someone who had grown up with a sense of civic duty and the spirit of a trailblazer. The Army’s response was blunt: there were no positions for women in that field.
Disappointment, however, was not a place Itunu Hotonu lived for long. She was advised to try the Nigerian Navy, which did not impose gender restrictions on its recruitment. In 1985, she applied and got accepted. She became an officer candidate at the National Defence Academy, Abuja, and in doing so, became the first woman ever admitted to that institution.
The training was formidable. She later described it as everything a National Youth Service Corps experience would be, multiplied by twenty. The physical rigour was extreme. The mental discipline required was relentless. But Itunu not only endured, she excelled. She graduated as the best overall student in her class of 73 cadets. She won the Commander-in-Chief’s Prize. She won the Commandant’s Prize for best research project. The institution that had never seen a woman walk through its gates watched one walk out of it as its finest graduate.
“Training taught me a lot of discipline and it gave me strength that I didn’t know I had — physical strength. So it was very good.”
A Career Written in Firsts
What followed was a career that could be narrated as a series of barriers breached. Every room Itunu Hotonu entered, she was often the only woman in it. Every office she assumed, she typically became the first woman to hold it. She did not merely serve, she transformed the definition of who could serve.
She became the first female military officer to attend the then National War College, now the National Defence College, where history repeated itself: she graduated as the best overall student in her class, once again claiming both the Commander-in-Chief’s Prize and the Commandant’s Prize for best research. She became the first female officer to serve as Directing Staff, meaning an instructor, at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji. She became the first female military officer to command a squadron at the passing-out parade of Naval College, Onne.
As Managing Director of the Nigerian Navy Post Service Housing Scheme, she oversaw the construction of over 1,000 naval housing units, completing the first 460 within a single year, a feat of logistical and professional excellence that earned her the Most Outstanding Performance Award at the Nigerian Navy’s 54th anniversary.
Then, in December 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan decorated her with a rank that no Nigerian woman, and no African woman in any navy, had ever carried before: Rear Admiral. She became the first female admiral in the history of the Nigerian Navy and the entire continent of Africa. The moment was historic in a way that transcended Nigeria’s borders.
“I feel humbled. I never for once in my life thought my name would be linked to the first set of female regular combatant cadets. I am just so thankful, I’m just so overwhelmed.”
Mentoring Women Across Africa
Itunu Hotonu understood, early and clearly, that a first is only meaningful if it opens doors for others. In 2012, she travelled to Liberia at the invitation of the Liberian government to mentor women serving in that country’s armed forces. It was a mission that reflected her deepest convictions: that gender equity in the military was not a Nigerian question but a continental one and that women who had reached the heights were obligated to reach back.
On platforms across Nigeria and West Africa, at leadership summits, NIA lectures, maritime conferences, and mentorship forums, she consistently championed three interconnected causes: ethical leadership, gender equity in the military and the professions, and the transformative power of a supportive spouse. Her message was never passive. She demanded action: databases of female architects, mentoring programmes for girls in the built environment, and bold institutional reform.
“Research has shown that economies thrive when there is good gender balance and women are often dynamic leaders of change.”
The Man Who Let Her Be
Behind every barrier Itunu Hotonu broke, she has always been candid about the foundation that made her audacity possible: her husband, Architect Abayomi Hotonu. They are both architects by training. They built careers in parallel. They built a family, three children, one of whom followed their parents into architecture. And they built something rarer still: a marriage in which a woman’s success was celebrated rather than threatened.
Abayomi Hotonu did not feel diminished by his wife’s extraordinary rise. He understood something that many men do not: that an unfulfilled wife is an unhappy one, and that her achievement belongs to the whole family. She has spoken of this often and without embarrassment. The rear admiral’s rank, she maintains, was made possible not only by her own relentless effort but also by the freedom her husband gave her to pursue it.
“I am Africa’s first female admiral today because my husband let me be. He said if you are not happy, I can’t be happy. He didn’t feel threatened by my success.”
Ethics, Governance, and What Nigerian Youth Must Learn
Rear Admiral Hotonu’s philosophy of leadership rests on a deceptively simple but demanding principle: integrity is not optional. In the military, in architecture, in public service, in any sphere where she has operated, she has insisted that excellence without ethics is a trap. The record she built was impeccable not only because of her ability but also because she never compromised her character to advance.
She told young women at an event that throughout thirty years in the Navy, she never once lobbied for an assignment. Every posting, every promotion, every prize is earned. For Nigerian youth, and particularly for the youth of the Southwest who carry the twin inheritance of intellectual tradition and entrepreneurial boldness, her life is a masterclass in institutional integrity. Institutions are only as strong as the people within them who refuse to cut corners. The Navy she served grew stronger because of officers like her.
She also understood the structural dimension of good governance. As Managing Director of the Navy Post Service Housing Scheme, she did not merely administer, she built. Over a thousand homes. A water reserve expanded tenfold. A NOWA Educational Centre complete with a crèche, nursery, primary school, and junior secondary school with boarding facilities. Good governance, in her hands, meant visible, measurable transformation in the lives of ordinary people.
“When you are a woman and you want to break the ceiling glass, you must be ethical in all your dealings.”
A Legacy Still Unfolding
Rear Admiral Itunu Hotonu’s story is, at its core, the story of what becomes possible when a father raises his daughter without limits, when a woman refuses to accept the ceiling others have drawn for her, when a husband stands beside his wife as a partner in her destiny, and when an institution, however imperfect, creates just enough space for excellence to force the door open wider.
From the sockets she fixed as a girl in Badagry, to the cars she drove before most of her peers were allowed near one, to the classrooms at Nsukka where she studied alone among men, to the parade ground where she commanded a squadron, to the ceremony where a president pinned rear admiral’s insignia on her uniform, every step was preparation for the next. Every ‘no’ she received became fuel.
She has not retired from meaning. On every platform where she speaks, to young architects, to women in uniform, to maritime professionals, and to mentees at WISCAR, she carries the same charge she has always: work hard, stay ethical; lean on those who love you; and never, not once, abandon your dream.
“Never abandon your dream no matter how tough. Learn to rise up each time you fall because falling is real. Hard work is the key you need to unlock success — stand your ground and never let go your dream.”
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