A Presbyterian mission began work in 1846 in Calabar. The pioneer missionary was Itopa Waddell. Other missionaries who worked in the Delta State included towns of Abeoukuta and Hindever of Ibadan.

BISHOP SAMUEL AJAYI CROWTHER

 Samuel Ajayi Crowther was born in 1806 in the village of Oshogun near Iseyin in Yorubaland.

During the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Uwu war that took place between 1821 and 1829, the village of Oshogun was attacked in 1821 and young Ajayi was captured and sold into slavery.

He was later resold to Portuguese slave traders and put on board and shipped across the Atlantic to the new world. Fortunately, the slave ship was captured by warships of the British slave preventive squadron and taken to Sierra Leone in 1823 where Ajayi was liberated along with others and so joined the recaptives.

This marked a turning point 'in Ajayi's life, in Freetown, Ajayi's remarkable intelligence soon attracted attention. He was therefore sent to school and within a record time who could read the bible with ease.

On December, 1825, he was on the committee of the CMS. From now on, Ajayi's progress was steady and remarkable.

In 1826, he was taken to England and sent to a palace Scholl at Islington. On his return to Sierra Leone in 1827, he was one of the first the people to enroll in Fourah Bay where he showed himself as a student of rare intellectual ability.

He rose to be a tutor at that college. Crowther missionary connection with Nigeria began in 1841. In that year, he with Rev. J. F Schon represented the missionary arm of the expedition.                                        

His brilliant account of that expedition and rare qualities he displayed impressed the CMS authorities so much that on his second visit to England in 1843, he was ordained a priest and earmarked for the Project CMS Yoruba mission.  

 As mentioned, above in 1846, he with Rev. Towsend opened the CMS mission at Abeoukuta

In the 1854 Niger expedition Crowther made exploratory contacts for the founding of missions of the Niger. Accordingly in 1857, he and Rev., JC Taylor, founded missions at Onitsha and Ggegbe.

It was in appreciation of the progress of Christianity, in the Niger territories under Crowther's leadership that he was concentrated Bishop in 1864 and appointed to head the CMS Niger Mission - a post he held until 1891 when he died on December 31st.

He operated mainly in Bonny with Creole missionaries

He was officially invited by King William Pepple of Bonny, in 1864.  His mission; was financed from England (the Niger mission) with his son Dandeson Crowther, his mission succeeded greatly in the Niger Delta.

When the White missionaries arrived, much of the work had already been done by Crowther,

King Deppa Pepple of Bonny embraced Christianity,even his son George Pepple was also a strong-supporter of Christiahlty.

Oko Jumbo also, who was the leader of the Manila Pepple house also supported Christianity.

It was only Jaja who strongly opposed Christianity and supported the traditional religion.

Jaja was later joined by Oko Jumbo, who detected from-his earlier belief and deported Bishop Ajayi Crowther.

In 1886, the Consul removed Oko Jumbo from all authority and reinstated King George as the head of a constitution.  Crowther was allowed to return in 1888.

He destroyed the ikuba, which was a traditional temple, and Christianity became the dorminant religion.

BISHOP JOSEPH SHANAHAN

Father Joseph Shanahan who later became the first catholic Bishop of Eastern Nigeria was born in the village of Glankeen, Ireland, on June 6th 1871.

He joined the society of the Holy Ghost Fathers at the early age of 12, and alter his ordination in 1900, he volunteered for missionary service in Southern Nigeria,

In November 1902, Father Shanahan arrived at Onitsha where he joined father Lejuene-one of the most remarkable pioneer catholic missionaries in Eastern Nigeria.

Following the retirement and death of father Lejuene in 1905, father Shanahan was appointed prefect apostolic of the low Niger Mission, then began the amazing missionary career of the great founder of Christianity in Southern Nigeria.

He became the first Vicar apostolic of the newly created vicariate extending from Tivland in the North to Calabar in the South and from his Onitsha headquarters on the Niger to Ogoja in the East

In the 1917, when he was appointed Lome administrator of the Mission in the British-occupied territory of the Cameroons, the area under his charge doubled.

When he became head of the lower Niger Mission in the 1905, there were 12 missionaries caring for less than 2000 catholic adherents.

By about 1920, the number of both clergy and adherents had increased so much that Lome thought it fit to turn the Vicariate into a diocese, and on 6th June 1920, his 49th birth day, Vicar Apostolic was consecrated Bishop of Southern Nigeria at Maynooth, Ireland.

As a catholic pioneer missionary Bishop Joseph Shanahan is significant in the history of missionary activity in southern Nigeria in general and lboland in particular His outstanding success as a pioneer missionary owed mush to his unique and revolutionary methods.

First, he understood the African and believed and believed strongly in his innate goodness and great potentialities as a Christian. He once said,

"the African, once you understand and love him in Christ, is a treasury of goodness and loveliness. Only those who have lived with him, and spoken to him of God from the depth of own souls, know that speaking"[1]

Secondly, Shanahan believed that the village school rather than  the Orthodox Christian village was the surest instrument for the evangelization of the African society.

So he made it a policy to set up a school in almost every village where he and his small band of ardent Christian apostles had spread the Christian faith.

These schools became the vehicles through which the communities in which they were situated were evangelized.

To ensure the success of his training programme, he set up a teacher training institution at Igbarian in 1913. It was affected by the First World War but only re opened in 1928 at Onitsha. It was now renamed St. Charles Training College, named after the newly consecrated Bishop Charles Heerey who was Shanahan's Assistant.

 Also Shanahan's attitude towards African religion and institutions was quite unique. He discovered some areas of similarity between Christianity and African traditional religions among the Ibo, Shanahan therefore used these areas of similarity to convey his message.

There was therefore effective transformation and tremendous change because of Shanahan's approach.

Another factor was that Shanahan believed in mixing with and understanding the people properly. So he traveled widely and lived with the people i.e. moved from village to village on foot, ate with the people and spoke the language they understood properly.

Apart from his contribution in the field of missionary work, Shanahan also his contribution in laying a foundation for the native clergy in Southern Nigeria by founding the first major Seminary in Eastern Nigeria. It is on record that on 8th March 1930, he ordained the first Iboman from Father John Cross Anyogu, from Eastern Nigeria as a priest of a church.

To promote the education of women in Catholic Church, as evangelization is concerned, he founded in 1923, and the congregation or the Holy Rosary sisters, the first baton or whom arrived in 1928.

Bishop Joseph Shanahan was indeed a respected missionary in the whole of West Africa. He died on Christmas day 1931.

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[1] ‘Onwubiko; K.B.C,. School Certificate, History of West Africa, Book Two, 1800-Present Day, page 209