Our Reporter, Betty Owhor
Once the society was not kind to the women they made life difficult, one day the decided to come together to demand justice.
These great women took destiny in their hands and that’s how the OMG began.
MARGARET EkPO was a Nigerian women’s rights activist and social mobilizer who was a pioneering female politician in the country’s First Republic. She was born in Creek Town, Cross River State. She was married to a doctor, John Udo Ekpo, and they later moved to Aba where she played major roles as a grassroots and nationalist politician.
She earned a diploma in domestic science at the new Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin Ireland. On her return to Nigeria, she established a Domestic Science and Sewing Institute in Aba. In 1954, she established the Aba Township Women Association and that led to an outnumbering of men voters by women voters in the city election that held the next year.
The Calabar International Airport was named after Margaret Ekpo in 2001, sadly she died five years later.
GAMBO SAWABA was a supporter of the Northern Elements Progressive Union during the First Republic. She was one of the early members of NEPU in Zaria, whose aim was to identify with the working class and poor and to support them.
Although Gambo had a hard time moving from one husband to the other she still tried to make a mark in her generation irrespective of being married four times to four different men. There had been incidences of domestic abuse in one of her marriages and that led her to start up a charitable organization that focused on women liberation.
OLUFUNMILAYO RANSOME- KUTI was a teacher, political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat. She was the mother of famous afro-beat artist, Femi Kuti and also the first woman in Nigeria to drive a car. Due to Ransome’s political activism, she was described as the doyen of female rights in Nigeria, as well as “The Mother of Africa.”
She was elected to the native house of Chiefs and served as an Oloye of the Yoruba people. Her activism rubbed off on her three sons and even in her old age, they had faced several oppositions.
These three women formed a strong synergy.
#OMGthemusical brought back history to our feets.
#O-OLUFUNMILAYO
#M-MARGARET
#G-GAMBO
Written By Betty Owhor
Student: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY
