The Efik Kingdom in Cross River State has kicked against alleged plans by the state government to rename historical Goldie Street in Calabar after the immediate past late Chairman of Calabar South Local Council, Esther Bassey. 

 
Bassey died in February in the heat of the 2023 Governorship and National Assembly elections. But a prominent Efik son, Mr Gershom Davis, reacting to the plan by the state government to rename Goldie Street in honour of the departed chairman, wondered if past achievers must be dishonoured in order to elevate current ones.
  
“Why can’t we go through her records and pick one of the several things she must have done and use it to honour her.”
   
Davis stated that Goldie Street stands as a befitting memorial for a man who spent 48 years of his life in Old Calabar contributing immensely to the religious and social emancipation of the people. “He is highly revered by the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Christians all over the world, and the people of Old Calabar in general.

“We should learn to eschew sentiments and rein in our emotions when taking actions in the public sphere.” Going down memory lane, Davis said that Rev. Hugh Goldie, born in Scotland moved to Calabar with his wife on June 16, 1847, to commence mission work after he was ordained for the African Mission by the Falmouth Presbytery on July 17, 1846.
  
He said that Goldie spent about 48 years of his life labouring in the mission fields of Old Calabar and was a prolific writer and translator whose works include “the Iko nkpo oro emi ewetde ke Akani Testament”, little Efik catechism, Small Hymn book in Efik, translation of the New Testament in Efik (1862), translated the English dictionary into Efik (1864), wrote the Calabar and its mission (the authoritative record of the activities of the early missionaries)”.

 
Goldie according to Davis carried out the first act of public baptism at Creek Town on October 16, 1853, when he publicly baptized the legendary Esien Esien Ukpabio who “became the first native teacher, and afterwards pastor, and the father of the Missionary Presbytery of Biafra.
 
He said that Goldie is credited with constituting the “Old Calabar Mission Committee” into the first Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria on September 1, 1858, commencing the Presbyterian Mission at Ikoneto in July 1856 and was part of the team that carried out a preliminary survey in 1850 for the expansion of the mission to Uwet. He died in Calabar on August 18, 1895, and was buried in Calabar.
 
Another Efik son, Dr Emmanuel Adams said: “Our government for long has been insensitive to history and milestones and even if they rename Goldie, people will never call it Esther Street.”
 
He noted that streets like the White House was renamed Dan Archibong, Fosbry to Nelson Mandela, Mayne Avenue to Inyang Henshaw, Marian Road extension to Ndidem Usang Iso Road and MCC to Liyel Imoke Road yet no one calls those streets renamed or recognises them as such.