Nyong Essien Akpan Efio-Iwat Effembe Ebit Akpan Amaide Oku (9 November 1872 – 15 October 1976) was a traditional ruler, teacher, and retired civil servant in Nigeria.
He was the first representative of Old Calabar Province in the Legislative Council in Lagos and the first president of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs in Nigeria's Eastern Region. He was also the first installed president of the Ibibio Union, the first officially recognized paramount ruler of Uyo, and the first nsom of Uruan.
Chief Nyong Essien was one of the pillars of Nigerian nationalism. He was one of the prime architects and negotiators of Nigeria's independence. He intellectually fought for the enhancement of the traditional institutions of his people, and he was known for his opposition to corruption.
Early life and education Chief Nyong Essien was born on 9 November 1872, into the royal family of Akpan Efiom-Iwat, Effembe Ebit Akpan Amaide Oku in Issiet Ekim village, Southern Uruan in the then Uruan clan of Uyo Division, Calabar Province of Eastern Region, Nigeria. His late father, Obong Essien Akpan Effiom-Iwat was a well known aristocrat and the village head of Issiet Ekim. Chief Nyong Essien was admitted into Duke Town School owned by the Church of Scotland Mission in 1900 at the age of 28. He passed all the infant classes the same year. He was in Standard IV in 1904 and the school set a general examination for the entire school (Standard I to IV). His exceptional success in the exams earned him the position of a senior prefect for the entire school. This feat earned him the prestigious award of DUX and his name was engraved on the brass honour roll of the School as No. 1. This evidence is still available today on the walls of class room No. 10 in Duke Town Primary School, Calabar, Cross River State.
Career Teaching and missionary career After the completion of Standard IV in 1906 at the Duke Town Primary school, Calabar. He attained the highest level of education available at the time in Calabar Province. His Head Master, Mr. S. M. Hart noted that "he was a hard worker and a keen patriot, who had sincere love for the progress of his country, his race and for humanity" The man, Nyong Essien, was employed as a teacher in Duke Town Primary School and he taught for two years before resigning and taking up the Missionary work with the Methodist Mission, which was at that time known as the "Primitive Methodist". He pioneered the Missionary work to his home town, Issiet Ekim, where founded the Issiet Ekim Methodist Church in 1909 and caused his people to hand over the Presbyterian School in his village for the ""Primitive Methodist" to manage.Edet Akpan Udo. The Life and Times of Obong Nyong Essien in the Funeral Oration, 1976 at p.9 (Unpublished) He eventually took up appointment as a teacher in the Methodist Missionary Mission. Operating from his village, he carried the touch of Western education and Christianity into the interior areas for the benefit of the Ibibio People and beyond. In 1911 he was transferred to Oron Institute where he worked in dual capacity as a Mission Agent and as An Assistant Teacher under Rev. T. W. Hancox, Manager and Principal of the school. Thereafter, he was transferred to work in out stations of the Primitive Methodist Mission both as a school teacher and a station preacher until 1916 where he withdrew his services from the Methodist Mission. According to the Methodist Mission record, Chief Nyong Essien "has always been industrious and striven hard to improve himself. The only trouble he has had with the Mission has been the tendency of his opinions towards the practices of the African Church. His actual entry into that church is the reason for his separation from the mission work." However the real reason was that they have asked Chief Nyong Essien to take up orders as a Methodist Minister in 1911, an offer which he rejected. His love for books resulted in the creation of the Shekina library, one of the best private libraries in the eastern part of Nigeria. The library was donated to the University of Uyo as Nyong Essien Collection in Nyong Essien Library, town campus, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Civil service career Between January 1917 and December 1918, Chief Nyong Essien served as a clerk for Barrister J. W. Maxwell at Calabar, when Mr. Maxwell left Calabar to Europe. He was appointed into the Clerical Cadre of the colonial civil service in 1919 and served in dual capacity as a Correspondence Clerk and an Interpreter in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Judicial Department, Calabar. While serving at the Calabar station, Chief Nyong Essien was described as än Excellent Interpreter" by His Honour, Sir Arthur Frederick Clarence Weber, whom he worked under.Interview with Prince Asuquo Nyong Essien at his residence, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo on 23rd July 2010 as reported by Uwem Akpan (2014) He was transferred to the Judicial Department in Lagos aftwhere he served under Justice Herbert Norman Cleverly and Philip Peter-Rides until he retired from in August 1929 on medical grounds. He served for 11 years in the Colonial Civil service and was only promoted to the rank of second Class Clerk. 1918;. He was a union activist and a pioneer member of the Nigerian Civil Service Union. He became secretary of the union when the Union stood up against the existence of disparity between the African and European civil servants in the colonial service. In January 1939, he collected a cheque for the sum of 134 pounds for his pension and gratuity.Interview with Obong Okon Essien, Village Head of Essiet Ekim, Uruan South, Uruan Local Government Area on nd June 2010 as reported by Akpan, Uwem (2014)
Establishment of the Ibibio Union and the Calabar Rights and Liberties Protection Union Chief Nyong Essien was the organizer and first President General of the Ibibio Mainlanders Association which was established in Calabar in 1924. The association started as a social, friendly, humanitarian, charitable, educational, industrial, and constructive society. Its name "Mainland Association" was significant in the fact that its membership included all Ibibio people resident in Calabar.Bassey, Joyce (1984) The Biography of Nyong Essien, CMG;CON, Nsom of Uruan, Paramount Ruler of Uyo Local Government Area. Unpublished N.C.E Long Essay, Dept. of History, Institute of Education, University of Cross State, Uyo, 1984. p.19 He remained as the leader of the Association up to 1928 ·when it merged with another group known as Ibibio Welfare Association which existed in the Mainland part of the then Calabar Province, now Akwa Ibom State to become Ibibio Union. (In 1948 it was re-named Ibibio State Union). It is significant to note that the Ibibio State Union evolved to become one of the leading ethnic organizations in Nigeria and embarked on many impressive programmes before its proscription in 1966 by the Aguyi Ironsi's military administration.13 He also served as the Secretary of the Calabar National League from 1920 to 1923. He was the President of the Legal Servants and Aspirants Association of Calabar, which Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was the founder, organizer and Secretary in 1925.Souvenir Programme of Obong Sampson Udo Etuk Annual Reception & Dinner/Excellence Awards Ceremonies by Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio held on 27 December 2003, p.12
The Calabar Rights and Liberties Protection Union, which Nyong Essien was the Secretary, was a social and political organization. Its membership was opened to any tax payer in Old Calabar. The main aim of the Union was to protect the rights and liberties of the inhabitants of Calabar in particular and the rights of other people in general. The Union also hoped to establish national schools for the promotion of the people's culture apart from enhancing unity and co-operation for better life in Calabar community.·Sunday Chronicle of 21 November 1976 p.6
The Union strove to work in the spirit of what were embodied in the Agreements, Treaties and Conventions entered into by the Kings of Calabar and the Government of Great Britain or its agents between 6 December 1841 and 21 November 1922. The treaty of 1842 outlawed the sale and export of slaves and promised to pay compensation to King Eyamba, yearly for five years for the loss in slave trade. The treaty of 1849 abolished human sacrifices, slave trading and the killing of twin children and their mothers as well as the use of esere beans or poison nut. The agreement of 1878 confirmed the previous treaties signed between 1850 and 1872 by the Calabar Kings and the British Government. It rendered the native customs of forcing widows to remain in filth and wretchedness in their houses for seven years after the death of their husbands and the tradition of assaulting helpless women in the public void.Minutes of the Meeting of the Calabar Rights and Liberties Protection Union with His Honour, the Resident in-charge of the Calabar Province, 31 October 1932
The Calabar People's Rights and Liberties Protection Union in exercising its mandate, also made reference to the Agreement of April 1889, signed by the King of Calabar with Her Majesty's Special Commission, Major Claude Macdonald and Consul Edward Ryde Hewett, which allowed collection of taxes from the African and white residents and the use of the tax money to erect public buildings in Calabar. It guaranteed justice for all residents and preserved native laws and customs which did not permit cruelties, oppression, injustice and slavery.
Chief Nyong Essien in his advocacy for the implementation of the agreements observed that it had laid down the principles of good government in Calabar. His Union placed a very great reliance on Article XII, Sections l and 2 of the Order-in-Council of 1922, relating to the Colonial Government of Nigeria, which maintained that "rights" given to the natives in the Protectorate by Treaties or Agreements made and sanctioned by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria or Her Agent, remained effective.Address of Welcome by the Calabar Rights And Liberties Protection Union during a meeting held in Calabar on January, 1931. p.2
The Union pressed for a meeting with the Resident and at the meeting, Chief Nyong Essien who was the Secretary, on behalf of the Union outlined their grievances, notably the denial of non-Efik in Calabar the right of representation in the Obio Efik Council and the Native Court. (The non-Efik included, Ibibio, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Sierra Leonians and West Indians). Chief Nyong Essien requested that the administration of Calabar should be a centre-piece of good government to others vis-a-vis, justice to all, irrespective of place of origin. He also requested that the name of "Obio Efik Council" be changed to "Calabar Council", which should carter for all tax payers resident in Calabar. These contributions which facilitated some reforms in the colonial administration earned him the admiration of the people.