What links Margaret Ekotoro, Margaret Ekpo and Margaret Thatcher, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

This is a benighted generation of distractions. In this generation’ too many things strive to govern our minds from the social media and cause a stray from the culturally ideal path. In this generation we are daily indoctrinated and radicalised to antagonise our indigenious cultures, be swiftly swept away and drawn into the whirlpool of acculturation that leaves us confused and culturally rootless.

Daily invaded by ferocious wind of cultural confusion and rootlessness, reflections must must be cast upon the lives of Margaret Ekpo, Margaret Thatcher and Rev. Mother Margaret Ekotoro whose achievements could chart a course for this benighted generation bedevilled with distractions away from the values, ideals and ethos that guarantee steady sail in a turbulent river.

No Margaret has ever come to this earth and left without a trail of reverations of their impactful recognition, striking such notes of stridency by which society feels morally assaulted and obligated to build immortal structures for them in varied forms. Their impactful radiance in their varied chosen careers always forces the world to create structures to immortalise their achievements even after their departure. Historically, Margaret Ekpo, of Cross river and Abia States, Margaret Ekotoro of Delta and Bayelsa States and Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain have slipped into this identified groove associated with the notable ‘Margaret’ in Nigeria and Britain. In all their different careers these three ‘Margarets’ struck achievements notes of stridency that are identical. Differently, they all impactfully made indelible marks during their days on earth and the society recognised these indelible marks in immortal language that lends itself to easy use by every generation as a guide to the right path.

Margaret Ekpo was historically distinguished by her political and activist engagements taken on to protect the fundamental rights of Nigerian women. Born 27 July 1914 in Creek Town in Cross River State of Southern Nigeria with some roots in Abia State of Eastern Nigeria, she died 21 September 2006. A pioneering advocate of feminism and a human rights activist, she was a member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, the first woman to be elected into the Eastern Regional House of Assembly among the countable female politicians in Nigeria at that time; the founder of the Market Women Association in Aba in 1946, Ekpo was remarkable in her contributions to the growth of Nigeria during the colonial days and after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. She fought the colonial over draconian policies targeted at Nigerians. She advocated for the economic and political rights of women until voting rights were granted women.

Full voting rights comfortably came the way of women in Western and Eastern Nigeria in 1954 and 1959 following Ekpo’s potent advocacy. In the 1940s she questioned and put up potent protest against the British colonial government over the treatment meted out to indigenous medical staff. She awakened women to fight for their political and economic rights. Ekpo also fought the colonial government over the 1949 Enugu Colliery strike which resulted in the killing of twenty miners. Alongside Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, she vigorously sensitised women to be integrally part of Nigeria’s independence struggle under the auspices of Nigerian Women’s Union. In recognition of Ekpo’s pioneering advocacy for women’s political and economic rights aligned with Nigeria’s struggle for independence, President Olusegun Obasanjo named the airport in Calabar Margaret Ekpo International Airport as an immortal monument for her in 2001. At the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, one can find Margaret Ekpo Convocation Hall.The Margaret Ekpo Convocation Hall at UNN is a conscious step to recognise and immortalise Ekpo. Ekpo left behind indelible imprints of patriotic contributions to national growth.

Unarguably, in Margaret Thatcher one can also see notable national achievements, a pattern, a groove, the Margarets notably slip into during and after their retirement from earth. Margaret Hilda Thatcher was born 13 October 1925 but departed this world on 8 April 2013. From 1979 to 1990, Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; from 1975 to 1990, she was the Leader of the Conservative Party. She was Europe’s first woman prime minister, Britain’s longest serving prime minister since 1827, credited with three conservative terms through electoral victory. From statism to liberalism, Thatcher boldly moved the British economy with vision. A role model for Prime Minister Liz Truss, Thatcher was the most celebrated British political leader after Winston Churchill.

Thatcher was a notable prime minister. As prime minister, she took on policy implementation in a manner characterised ‘Thatcherism’.Probably fuelled by her approach to policy-implementation, a Soviet journalist’s characterisation of Thatcher was an ‘Iron Lady’. Thatcher was remarkably impactful in her policy-implementation approaches while in power. She has been immortalised by her impactful approach to governance in the United Kingdom. True to the performance roots and groove associated with the Margarets, Thatcher left behind indelible imprints of performance.

Remarkable continuum of commendable performance historically characterises those who bear Margaret. As if in continuation of the remarkable performance spree and groove of the ‘Margarets’, Rev. Mother Margaret Eyorozide Ekotoro strikes one as another Margaret of notable indelible imprints of achievements. Born 1 October 1926 in Kalafiogbene/Adekagbene in Bomadi Local Government Area, Ekotoro had roots that made her an indigene of both Delta and Bayelsa States in the South-South zone of Nigeria. She was a distinguished devotee of God, a Rev. Mother in the Christ Divine and Gospel Mission (CDGM) church in Elohim City Zion, Kalafiogbene. She was a radiant example of forgiveness and meekness in her godliness. She was a professional tailor who specialised in ‘garment-sewing’ for various denominations of churches that use garments in their church services. She sewed church garments with amazing accuracy without measurement. She only ran her eyes over the physique of her customers without a measuring tape and produced excellent garments for them. She was a global tailor to whom thousands of people trooped from different parts of the African subregion.

Majorly, Rev. Mother Ekotoro’s teeming customers came from Ghana, Togo, Gambia, Cameroon, South Africa, Mali, Niger, Burkina-Faso, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo. In Nigeria she was nicknamed the home of church garments because of her distinguishable professional touch to garment-making.

Rev. Mother Ekotoro was a professional tailor, yet without training and apprenticeship. It was a natural endowment even Ekotoro could not fathom. The professional and religious radiance which Ekotoro enjoyed like Ekpo and Thatcher, her counterparts/contemporaries whose radiance was felt in the political, economic and activist spheres, her story deserves nuanced narration traced from the obscure beginning to the period of radiance. In this nuanced tracing of her radiance in her chosen careers, the risk of repetition of some of her details would not be avoided, as this would produce more clarity and exactitude.

Ekotoro was known for her radiant professionalism in garment-sewing and evangelism-consolidated move to awaken people to the path of godliness. She did these two things with amazing devotion. She also believed in religious ecumenism. Her ecumenism was one centred on the need for churches to embrace one another without notes of deliberate denigration targeted at the other to win cheap membership and popularity.

Pondering on the radiance of Ekotoro in her noiseless evangelism, ecumenism and professional tailoring engagement, I wake up daily with the knowledge that there are doves of peace and meekness in every century. The dove of peace and meekness in Akugbene-Mein Kingdom is dead. Rev. Mother Ekotoro is the dove of peace and meekness. She died on 14 March 2025 and will be home for final burial rites on 27 November 2025.

With historical roots buried in Ogbotobo in Bayelsa State and Kalafiogbene/Adekagbene, Esanma, Akugbene, Ayakoromo and Okoloba in Delta State, Rev. Ekotoro was a great historical figure in Nigeria. Ekotoro is the great woman who died nobly and taught the world how to die nobly without the piercing claws and talons of death. Historically, she is the only woman by whose death even DEATH was too discombobulated, stunned, mystified and scared to claim responsibility because DEATH was apparently embarrassed and pushed to the altitude devoid of the famed arrogance to multilate and silence the prey.

Chronicles gathered after her death reveal interesting details . Ewekere, the celebrated beauty queen of her time, from Ayabotu Family in Ayakoromo married Mr Mienye of Akugbene and gave birth to miss Ayepreotukefiye. Ayepreotukefiye married Mr Okunbiri of Kalafiogbene. It was a marital union between Mr Okunbiri and Ayepreotukefiye which gave birth to Angosin, Dauebinemune, Margaret Eyorozide and Agnes in a family of four as siblings, though only Mr Angosin was of a different father by name Yekuwe. Margaret Eyorozide was the third child in her family of four siblings which now has Mrs Agnes Money as the only surviving sister. Rev. Mother Ekotoro was a widely known devotee of God of the CDGM faith in Elohim City Zion, Kalafiogbene/Adekagbene.

Routinely, death always chooses to prey on any person admired but it was different in Ekotoro’s case. Ekotoro was not chosen by death; it was she who chose death when she saw that her earthly mission was over. Like Nostradamus and Jesus Christ in their varied psychic exposures, she knew her time and simply beckoned on death to transport her to her new home without the characteristic claws and talons painfully dug into one’s body until the last breath goes. Alas, it was death who cried bitterly at being humiliated when she left the world proudly without pains and tears on her own terms of departure from the living world.

Sainthood anywhere is usually celebrated and it comes in different forms. Sainthood is not a publicity drama ideated; it is earned through sojourn on earth, particularly when the earthly engagements are over at death with noble notes and echoes. This is the time keen observers, archivists, archaeologists and investigative writers begin to unfold the survey plan on the departed. Even the departed did not know the life led was rooted in sainthood until it is revealed after death based on the remarkable imprints while on earth.

The whole world knows true sainthood comes after death. Interestingly, archival and archaeological excavations reveal late Rev. Mother Ekotoro is a saint who left this world on 14 March 2025 without any remembered resentment held against anyone over man-made injuries unjustly inflicted on her by benighted mortals. Ekotoro had a philosophy of forgiveness and forgetfulness bordering on instantly forgiving the offender, followed by deletion of the whole episode from the mind. Her philosophy of forgiveness and forgetfulness was always acted out without words. When deliberately injured by benighted mortals, she swallowed the injurious pill calmly and meekly and showed by her deeds that she had long forgiven the offender without telling the offender openly your sins had been forgiven. Wordlessly, the heart was the home of Ekotoro’s meek philosophy of forgiveness and forgetfulness.

The dream of the christian world is to approximate the standard of Jesus Christ in ideal-pursuit. In mere mortals one can hardly find the behavioural landmarks of Jesus Christ. In Ekotoro one can find the behavioural landmarks of Jesus Christ. She was an embodiment of unfailing forgiveness and meekness who bore verbal injuries occasionally inflicted on her by benighted mortals without resentment held against the offenders. Her unfailing forgiving spirit was always wordlessly communicated, only showing in her resentment-free interactions with people who have deliberately stung her like bees.Her story of forgiveness and meekness was always told in pragmatic terms through malice-free interactions with the offenders after the injuries had been malevolently inflicted on her.

Remarkable devotion to God was a characterisation of Ekotoro’s life on earth. She devotedly worked for God until she attained the respectable position of Rev. MOTHER in the Christ Divine and Gospel Mission (CDGM) church. Until her death, she did not miss any CDGM congregation. Every year she journeyed as a pilgrim to the Holy Land at Elohim City Zion of CDGM church in Kalafiogbene to renew her annual prayerful vow with God for the protection of her entire family.

The story of Rev. Mother Ekotoro is a story of beautiful children given birth to every two years. Ekotoro had eleven children through marriage to Mr Alhaji Ekotoro Oruserikeme of Ezebiri town – Mrs Evelyn Bekere Kemasuode, Chief John, Mrs Queen Makaraba, Bishop Boro, Comrade Seaman, Hon. Monday, Mrs Lucky Layefa Ekanpou and Mrs Happy Truston Gbenekama. Out of the eleven children she had, three journeyed to the underworld before her while she left behind eight children at death.

The earthly journey of Ekotoro was a memorable one. All through her earthly life she did not have a single quarrel with any of her children or any other person outside her family. She was an embodiment of meekness as often preached by Jesus Christ. Her entire life was governed by meekness and this explained why she was always at peace with everyone without malice however the level of deliberate provocation.

The story of Ekotoro cannot be told without a spotlight on her tireless spirit of hardwork.She engaged varied occupations that ranged from supply and sale of drums to ogogoro gin and Akoro wood business. The Akoro wood business took her to Ijebu-ode and other cities in Western Nigeria. After all these occupations , Ekotoro took up tailoring as her main engagement.

With no prior training and apprenticeship, Ekotoro suddenly decided to become a tailor after buying a machine. Rather miraculously, she became an excellent tailor without apprenticeship, specialising in the ‘making’ of church garments. Her tailoring was restricted to making of church garments ; this was borne out of her desire to contribute meaningfully to the growth of Christianity on the CDGM platform and be on a favourable path with God.

The life of Ekotoro was a study in godliness. She was a very godly woman who embraced christianity with enthusiasm. Her godliness inspired her to devote her tailoring to church ‘garment-making’ because she did not want any secular distractions from doing the work of God. Even at 99 she was still a master of her machine that gave her economic stability and joy. All the personal achievements of Ekotoro were built from her tailoring profession. Until her death, Margaret Ekotoro could still pass the thread through the eye of the needle in her machine without being aided by a pair of glasses. She had a better vision than the eagle until death came at 99.

Characteristically, all typical Ijaw people like music. Ekotoro was a great lover of Ijaw music who enjoyed good music. A constantly blaring music from her prized gramophone inspired in her hardwork and indefatigability when at work. Music was a special delicacy she enjoyed both day and night. Specifically, she enjoyed the musical masterpieces of King Robert Ebizimor, Bestman Doupere, Field Marshall Echo Toikumo and Hon. Agbeotu Teiyeibo.

Ijaw highlife music always held Ekotoro spellbound. In Ekotoro’s love of Ijaw highlife music one can find a glaring bias. King Robert Ebizimor’s music always held her spellbound much more than any other Ijaw musician and gave her the unfailing energy and inspiration to engage her machine both day and night without distraction.

There was always something amazing about Ekotoro whenever she was at work with her machine and gramophone. Buried in instrumentally and lyrically striking songs from her prized gramophone and her restless leg-driven machine, Ekotoro momentarily saw herself in another Heaven on earth where she knew no distraction. For her, machine and music constituted the dugout canoe that transported her to a rosy world of soothing sounds.

Ekotoro was an enthusiastic lover of Ijaw music. People who know Ekotoro know that machine and music meant many things to her. Machine and music virtually meant the whole world to Ekotoro whenever she found herself in the world of twosome communication between her and the two stationary objects, producing results that enlivened her economically, socially, culturally, morally, philosophically and psychologically.

One notable thing about Ekotoro was that it was an objectionable void for her whenever she could not find machine and music around her. Without the blaring music from her gramophone and the whirring or weaving noise from the machine around her, coupled with her programmed religious activities in the CDGM church, Rev. Ekotoro’s life was incomplete. For Ekotoro, her prized gramophone and machine occupied an inseparable space in her life journey.

The whole world appears to have agreed that Ekotoro was an amazing devotee of God whose interactions with people had the aroma of pragmatic Christianity. She practised what the Bible preached. Ekotoro’s earthly journey was patterned upon biblical principles – biblical principles the whole world agreed she never deviated from one second while on earth.

There are people on earth who are intuitive. Ekotoro must be an intuitive person – indeed, a psychic! Intuitively aware of her prepared departure, she didn’t go to bed at her usual time at night on 14 March 2025 because she knew she would be found dead by her children in the morning, which could be an inconvenience. She did not want to take her children unawares at death. She ate her meal with relish, drank a bottle of coke and water and watched an interesting movie of her choice to the end. When all these activities were over, she dashed to the white house with agility to ease herself. Back from the white house, she sat nobly and happily on her bed and told her daughter, Mrs Happy Truston Gbenekama , that it was time for her to die. Rev. Mother Ekotoro communicated that she wouldn’t like to take her last breath right inside the house and cause inconvenience. Her daughter understood this and rushed her to a nearby hospital. Ekotoro smiled and took her last breath before the hospital. At the hospital the medical doctor confirmed she had died one minute ago before the hospital.

Ekotoro is no more on earth. At death Rev. Mother Ekotoro’s last smile was radiant on her face as she lay spreadeagled on the hospital bed. Ekotoro died nobly because she did not want to take her children unawares at death. For her children and grandchildren to wake up in the morning and find her dead in her sleeping bed was what Ekotoro clairvoyantly avoided when she chose to die nobly without the piercing claws and talons of death. At death Ekotoro told the world how to die nobly without inconvenience to the living.

A phenomenally, God-fearing, forgiving and meek woman has departed this world of benighted people. For a forgiving and meek woman who walked on the monotheistic path; for a forgiving and meek woman who loved her children and humanity with passion; for a forgiving and meek woman who died heroically without troubling her children by telling death to come upon her because she was ready; for a forgiving and meek woman who smiled before death and left a memorable smile on her face at death, signalling the fact that at death she was not sad but full of happiness and smile because the journey ended meaningfully; for a forgiving and meek woman who led a STAINLESSLY saintly and motherly life on earth, let the celebratory bells ring loudly for her on 27 November 2025 at Kalafiogbene/Adekagbene with her prized secular songs of King Robert Ebizimor, Field Marshall Echo Toikumo, Hon. Agbeotu Teiyeibo, Bestman Doupere and moving religious songs from the CDGM church at Elohim City Zion.

Many things happen when somebody dies and these things are determined by the life and age of the deceased. Many are the dead that have journeyed to the underworld, sometimes lukewarmly celebrated, but this pioneer of noble death, Rev. Mother Ekotoro, is different. No dead deserves a better celebration than Ekotoro who will feel more ennobled at death where her philosophy and ideals become the moral pair of compass for this generation and beyond, particularly in Ogbotobo, Ayakoromo, Esanma, Okoloba, Akugbene and Kalafiogbene/Adekagbene communities where her true historical roots of origin lie buried in varying degrees. Home Ekotoro has gone at last without any medical doctor’s overly dramatic, puny resuscitation mutilations on the untainted healthy body with which she came into this world.

Margaret Ekpo, Margaret Thatcher and Margaret Ekotoro are intertwined by the story of longevity and notable achievements in their chosen careers. Ekpo died at the age of 92; Thatcher died at the age of 87 and Ekotoro died at the age of 99. Of the three achiever ‘Margarets’, Ekotoro’s sojourn on earth was the longest. By implication, Ekpo, Ekotoro and Thatcher are not only driven together historically by their distinguished careers but also by their ages of sojourn on earth which cannot be categorised as untimely departures from the earth.

Celebration is the the word for the three Margarets. Margaret Ekpo and Margaret Thatcher were celebrated in their time of departure. Memorably celebrated as Ekpo and Thatcher were when they left the world, Margaret Ekotoro must be most memorably celebrated on 27 November 2025 because she is the oldest Margaret now dead. Let the whole world gather in Kalafiogbene to celebrate Ekotoro on the said date as a historical mark of last respect as it was done to her contemporaries like Ekpo and Thatcher.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State