Ex-House of Reps member fixes date for mother’s burial

A former member of the House of Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh, has fixed Saturday, 9 November, for the burial of his late mother, Grace Sunday Eyiboh.

The remains of the late 90-year-old deaconess of the Qua Iboe Church, popularly known as Mmaette among family, friends, and community members, will be laid to rest at the Community Secondary School, Akpautong, Esit Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

She passed away on 4 July, three days before her 90th birthday anniversary.

Mmaette was an entrepreneur, educator, and community leader in Akpautong, where she hailed from.

She was a member of the Esit Eket Customary Court and a member of the Juvenile and Azizes Court and Social Welfare Committees in Eket Local Government Area, where “she built structures of integrity and honour, and was strong in character, soft in love, dispensing justice, reconciliation and peace all around her.”

“Born on 7 July 1934 to the family of the Late Matthew Umoh, Deaconess Grace Eyiboh attended Qua Iboe Church School, Akpautong, for her primary education. After completing Standard Six, she married Late Elder Sunday Eyiboh, a skilled carpenter and Grade 2 teacher,” her yet-to-be-released biography stated.

“Mmaette’s passion for self-development led her to attend Singer Sewing Institute, Uyo, graduating with sewing skills. As a woman who believed in the philosophy of ‘Let the beauty of what you love be what you do’, she decided, upon completing her training, to establish her Sewing and Apprenticeship Training Centre at Uquo, Esit Eket Local Government Area.

“Through her dogged entrepreneurial drive, she nurtured generations of creative and enterprising women in her community and beyond.”

As a woman of faith and a deaconess in the Qua Iboe Church, Mmaette devoted her life to serving God and working for humanity.

While she was alive, Mmaette travelled widely and is blessed with many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who have made their marks in law, medicine, pharmacy, aeronautics, engineering, and cyber security/artificial intelligence.

“To die when a name is still well spoken of is never death but transfiguration. Mmaette is never dead. Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything,” the biography stated.

Her eldest son, Mr Eyiboh, represented Eket, Onna, Esit Eket, and Ibeno Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and was the House’s spokesperson.

He is the spokesperson to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio.