Birth and Education
In the year, 1938, a gigantic 450-metricton meteorite exploded 12 miles above Earth’s surface, scattering debris in its trajectoryacrossthe Northern Hemisphere. This prodigious meteorite, which blazed across the sky for several miles, appears now in retrospect, to have heralded the groundbreaking and momentous events that would occur that year. For it was in March, 1938, that crude oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia. It was in 1938 that the photocopier and the ballpoint pen, also known as the Biro, were invented. And it was again in 1938, that a “Seeing Eye Dog” was used for the first time to assist the blind in their daily lives. In addition to all these substantial events which took place that year, HRTH, Ezieogo Professor Dr. Emea Okwara Arua, Ebube Dike Ekpudiogba Ofali Agwu III, was born to late Nna Sgt. James Okwara Arua and Madam Dinah Agbogocha Arua, both respectively of Ndi Edike and Ndi Nkole Compounds, Amaekpu Ohafia. He saw the light of this world at Ifiayong, in old Calabar Province, Cross River State; now Akwa Ibom state.
At the time of his birth, Calabar and the rest of Nigeria experienced increased taxation, an extreme measure imposed by the colonial masters of Europe as a means of reversing the Great Depression. Nna James, a member of the British Colonial Police force, and his wife, Nma Dinah, both of blessed memory, had two children at this time. Nna James had reached the zenith of his career; he was a sergeant- the highest police rank for locals at the time. This did not deter him and his dutiful, loving wife, Nma Dinah, from sending their third child, the young Emea Okwara Arua in whom lay destined, a professor and an Ezieogo, to both the Methodist School at Egwenga in Opobo, and to the Ohafia Central School in Elu Ohafia. In these schools the young Emea acquired primary education between the years 1946 - 1952.