December 7, 1912 – June 7, 2010
The most Rev. Effiong Ekong Essien widely known as Rev. E. E. Essien was born on 7th December, 1912 to Mr. Ekong Essien Umana Akpan Ekpab of Ufok Nnung Ekpab, Ikot Mbiet and Mrs. Mary Udo Ekpo ( nee Adiang ) of Ufok Nnung Iboko Obio Udok, Ikot Udo Ese families respectively both of Anyam Efa, Efa, Etinan Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
At age 2, he lost his father mysteriously and was wholly looked after by Mary, his mother, who was quite an industrious and vibrant woman. Mary re-married and bore Papas younger brother, Pastor Eakin Robert Udo who died in 2008.
Papa relayed his experience that he was in the farm on one Sunday morning, and decided to take a rest after gathering the cassava tubers harvested by his mother, planted himself in-between the huge elephant grasses and was carried away as he moved gently and swinging to the melodious singing of hymns coming out of the Qua Iboe Church Choir. He decided from that day to become a Christian.
His persecutions began immediately he made bold his decision. There were threats to his tender life and an attempt to sell him into slavery was hatched; but for the effort of his uncle, the late Chief Sunday Umoren, who urgently arranged for him to travel to Ekoi in Calabar, where he grew up with his master, a man he referred to as Iwa.
Effiong Ekong, the first male and only surviving child of his father was a bundle of attributes stunning and outstanding. He began his education in Calabar while with Iwa at the West African Peoples Institute and completed his Primary Education. Effiong moved back home and sought and gained admission into Etinan Institute in the early 1930s. He was going to school from home, trekking to and from school just every day. It was there he joined the school choir and blossomed his singing prowess. He graduated from the Institute in December 1937 under the then headmaster Mr. S. O. Udoukpong and began life as a school teacher. His first appointment was at the Primary School, Ikot Usop, Mkpat Enin local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, where he rose to the position of a headmaster in 1938. His trajectory movement came as a result of his possession of the Class Two Middle Examination Certificate, hard work, dedication and a call to service. He was a very strict disciplinarian, a thorough-bred and a good man.
He left his teaching post at Ikot Usop in late 1938 to join the Qua Iboe Mission School board, Mbioto Centre and served as a teacher until 30th September 1939. He responded to the request sent to him by the late missionary and businessman-cum politician Mr. Emmanuel E. U. Inyang, to return home and head the Efa Orphan School that was located right across where Rev. E. E. Essien lived till his death. He obliged him his request and returned home on the background that this will enable him to contribute to the upliftment as well as educational development of his people.
Rev. E. E. Essien believed education was a must to every child irrespective of background or challenge. He served as a teacher in Efa Orphan School for one year and was discharged from service on 6th April 1940 by the then Manager of the School, Mr. Inyang, O.B.E., as a result of lack of funds to pay his salaries of One Pound, Two Shillings and Six Pence (£1:2:6).
He was versatile that as a teacher, he doubled as a personal secretary to the late Chief Emmanuel Inyang, O.B.E.
He got married to Chief Inyangs first daughter, the late Mrs. Iquo Effiong Essien, while he was still a teacher in Ukat. This marriage was blessed with his first two sons, Martin and Michael.
When the (the first Lutheran Church is LCCN in Numan) second Lutheran mission came to Nigeria in the early 1940s, Effiong Essien joined the fold and proceeded to the Lutheran Seminary in Obot Idim, Uyo. He graduated from the seminary and was called and ordained as a minister of Jesus Christ in 1948. He was among the first batch of pastors to be trained at the Seminary at Obot Idim and was called to serve at Ikot Iko, Ibesikpo. At Okto Iko, his wife, Iquo died after a period of protracted illness in 1956. He remarried to his present wife, Mrs. Edung Effiong Essien (nee Edung Offiong Ekong) of Ikot Akpan Abia, Ebesikpo, Uyo, in 1958. This marriage produced eleven more children five males and six females.
Pastor Effiong Essien in 1962 was transferred to tend His (the Lords) flock in the nearby congregation of Afaha Udo Eyop, Ibesikpo LGA, under the Evangelical Lutheran Church. But the year 1964 became the watershed in his pastoral journey as he against all odds, left the fold and became the founding president of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of Nigeria, with its headquarters then in Ishiet Erong, Etinan LGA. It was here that while tending His sheep in Ikot Akpabio, Etinn LGA, that he eventually proceeded in company of his young friend, now Dr. Luggard Etuk to the United States of America, USA. He was there when the Nigerian Civil War broke out in 1967 and in the thick of hostilities, he returned in 1968 to the warm embrace of his family and congregations.
The Rev. E. E. Essien continued preaching the gospel in spite of persecutions. From there, he met up with Pastor Nobert Reim ( a former professor at the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary at Obot Idim, Uyo ) and together founded the Nigerian Church of Lutheran Confession (NCLC) in Nigeria in 1975 affiliated to the Church of Lutheran Confession (CLC) in America. He built the Bible Institute and established many congregations in Nigeria. In 2006 he retired, but remained until death the founding president and spiritual supervisor of the Nigerian Church of the Lutheran Confession (NCLC) with its headquarters in Anyam Efa, Etinan LGA in Akwa Ibom State.
He was a community leader and served as the President of the Village council until the village Chief was appointed; the Family Council (Ekpuk Ikot Mbiet), after the demise of Chief Sunday Umoren until he retired from active service. He contributed immensely to the development of the state as well as Nigeria in general. He was a teacher, a footballer, a musicologist, an administrator, a father in all ways.
– The preceeding was taken directly from the service folder for Pastor E. E. Essiens funeral. I do not know who wrote it. Missionary Matthew Ude