10/04/2024
*178 years of Presbyterian Church of Nigeria*
*_By Obo Effanga_*
On this day, April 10, 1846, the Rev. Hope Masterton Waddell and his team of missionaries from the Church of Scotland Mission and the Jamaican Presbytery, arrived Calabar to begin what is now known as The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN).
Their arrival was on the written request of two Efik kings, Eyo Honesty II of Creek Town and Eyamba V of Duke Town. The team set up the first congregation of the Church in Creek Town where Rev. Waddell preached the first sermon of the Church on 26th July, 1846.
178 years after, the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria has made indelible mark not only in evangelism and church growth but in many different spheres of human endeavours including education, health and sports.
The church began the Duke Town School as a primary school on May 6, 1846 (the school is still in existence, alongside the Duke Town Secondary School which commenced much later). This school was followed the same year with the establishment of the Creek Town School. On August 21 of the same year, the Presbyterian Church published ‘The Printed Page’ as the first Bible lesson to be printed in Nigeria.
In 1895, the Church founded the famous Hope Waddell Training Institution, Calabar which later became the birthplace of the games of football and cricket in Nigeria. The school also boasts of producing many educated elites in Nigeria, thus influencing education, economy, civil service and the nationalist movement that agitated for the nation’s attainment of independence in 1960.
Such elites include the first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; the first Governor of Eastern Nigeria, Dr. Akanu Ibiam and the first Governor of Mid-West Region, Sir Dennis Osadebey; Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya; Chief Akin Taylor; Prof Eyo Ita; Alvan Ikoku and Prof. Eni Njoku.
Not to be forgotten is the good work of one of the Presbyterian missionaries, Mary Mitchell Slessor who arrived from Scotland and got involved in the campaign to end the barbaric practice of killing of twins in much of the present South-South and South-East of Nigeria.
As the church marks its 178th anniversary today, here is saying congratulations to my fellow Nigeria Presbyterians.
_*(This post is adapted from my Facebook post eight years ago when the church turned 170 years).*_
