Priscilla Christopher-Akpanettot
Deep in the quiet interior community of Obot Akara Local Government Area, tucked within Nto Eton, life moves at a painfully slow rhythm for three widows whose daily existence is defined more by endurance than by living. In this forgotten corner where infrastructure thins out, the cries of survival are often swallowed by the rustling of palm fronds and the hum of distant farmlands. Here, Elizabeth Uduak Jonah, Cecelia John, and Madam Ime Unwana each carry burdens that time has refused to lighten.
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| Mrs. Elizabeth Uduak Jonah |
Elizabeth Uduak Jonah, widowed in 2024, is a mother of five whose frail frame now tells a story of rapid physical and emotional decline. Once active in palm fruit processing and farming, she now survives on frying groundnut and Akara under the most difficult conditions imaginable. Her voice trembles like the weak walls of her life as she speaks, her words breaking under the weight of hunger, illness, and exhaustion.
She lives in a collapsing thatch mud house with cracked walls and a leaking roof that offers no protection from rain or heat. Malnourishment has stripped her body of strength, while an untreated illness slowly drains what remains of her energy because she cannot afford proper medication. Yet, even in this condition, she refuses to rest.
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| In her living room |
Each day, Elizabeth pushes herself through scraping palm leaves to make brooms, frying snacks for sale, and struggling to keep her children in school. Her hands shake as she works, yet she insists that stopping would mean total surrender to hunger. From these exhausting efforts, she barely raises enough—sometimes not more than a few thousand naira—to feed her household.
"If I don't do these to make at least, Five Thousand Naira in a day, it won't work", she said in her dialect.
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| Her kitchen |
Still, she clings to hope, pleading quietly for assistance to expand her small trade, access medical care, and secure a safer shelter.
Cecelia John’s own reality is no less heartbreaking. A petty trader, she lives in a structure that can barely be called a house—more like a shelter held together by fragile hope and dried thatch. When the rains fall, her home becomes a place of frantic coordination, with buckets placed under every leak as water drips relentlessly from all directions.
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| Madam Cecilia and her children |
At night, Cecelia and her children are forced to shift positions repeatedly, holding up sections of the roof to prevent it from being completely torn away by wind and rain. Sleep is never certain, and comfort is a luxury she has long stopped expecting. Yet she continues trading small goods, determined to keep her children alive despite the instability that surrounds them.
"This is how we've been operating. We don't sleep on nights when it rains", she informed this reporter.
Madam Ime Unwana, the third widow, represents an even deeper silence of age and abandonment. An octogenarian who lost her husband over two decades ago, she now lives alone in a dilapidated thatched hut that leans heavily into its own decay. Her frail body moves slowly through days marked by memory and survival, with little to hold onto except resilience shaped by years of hardship.
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| Mma Ime Unwana |
The current rainy season has further worsened their already fragile existence. Each downpour does not only fall from the sky but invades their homes, turning sleeping spaces into shallow pools and muddy traps. Roofs that were already weakened now surrender faster to wind and rain, leaving these widows exposed to cold nights, sickness, and constant fear of collapse. For them, rain is no longer a blessing—it is a recurring threat.
In this seasonal hardship, survival has become more expensive in pain than in money. Food is harder to keep dry, firewood is soaked, and movement within their homes becomes dangerous. The ground beneath them is constantly wet, increasing the risk of illness, especially for Elizabeth, whose already fragile health continues to deteriorate. The season has effectively turned their homes into shelters of desperation.
Together, these three women embody a painful reality of neglect and endurance in Nto Eton. Their stories echo beyond their collapsing homes, calling for urgent attention, compassion, and intervention—so that survival does not remain the only inheritance of widowhood in this forgotten community.
This is a passionate SOS to the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno; the Coordinator, Office of the First Lady, Helen Obareki; the Member representing Ikot Ekpene/Obot Akara/Essien Udim Federal Constituency, Dr Umoh Patrick
Dr. Patrick Umoh; and other public-spirited individuals to urgently intervene. These widows need not sympathy alone, but action—provision of befitting shelter, basic healthcare support, and meaningful capital for livelihood sustenance—so that dignity can return to lives long shadowed by hardship.
Mrs. Elizabeth can be reached via her contact: 07060829585, and supported financially through: 2200074564 (Elizabeth Uduak Jonah) UBA
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