Adeline Ndoma-Egba

he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors, Government Secondary School, Ikom, in 1980 by ex-Governor Clement Isong when he was just 24. You would not also know that President Shehu Shagari also appointed him into the Board of the Cross River Basin and Rural Development Authority at the same time or that he became a Commissioner of the highly coveted State Ministry of Works and Transport at the age of 27.

In the Red Chambers, where he eventually rose to the position of Deputy Leader in the 6th Senate and Leader in the 7th Senate, he represented what every a Senator should be in grace, patriotism, and hard work. He churned out bills like a bills machine.

However, this is not a tribute to Senator Ndoma-Egba. It is a tribute to the tree that bore the good fruit, for even the Holy Scriptures says that only a good tree can bear good fruits. It is about the good woman, who bore the good son.

Born on January 8, 1926 to the family of James and Elvira Wilson in St. Catherine’s Jamaica in the Caribbean Basins, the late matriarch of the Ndoma-Egbas joined his siblings in England after the death of her father. She enrolled with the Lewisham School of Nursing, an affiliate of Guys Hospital, London. She also trained with the University of London, London School of Tropical Medicine and Diseases and North London Middlesex Hospital and worked with Kings College Hospital, London and Bristol Royal infirmary.

After joining her husband in Nigeria in 1962, she worked at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, formerly known as General Hospital, Enugu. She also rendered her services at Park Lane Hospital, Enugu as the very first Theatre Matron. She went on to serve as Matron at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital when the civil war broke out and later moved on to work with the International Red Cross at the Awomama Reference Hospital in