Port Harcourt.html |
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2008) |
| Port Harcourt, Nigeria Igwe Ocha Borokiri |
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| Nickname(s): Garden City | |
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| Coordinates: | |
| Province | Rivers State |
|---|---|
| Government | |
| - Chairman of Port Harcourt City Council | |
| Area | |
| - City | 186 km² (71.8 sq mi) |
| - Land | 170 km² (65.6 sq mi) |
| - Water | 16 km² (6.2 sq mi) |
| - Metro | 462 km² (178.4 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| - Urban | 2,667,435 |
| - Metro | 3,761,645 |
| - Ethnicities | Igbo, Ijaw |
| - Religions | Christianity, Traditional African religions |
| estimated | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+1) |
Port Harcourt is the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River and is located in the Niger Delta.1 The population of Port Harcourt is estimated at 1,620,214 (2007), the port harcourt Urban area is 2.7 million while the Greater Port Harcourt Area is almost 3.7 million in population.
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History
Port Harcourt, originally known as "Igwe Ocha", was founded in 1912 by the British in an area traditionally inhabited by the Ikwerre and the Ijaw;2 it was named after Lewis, Viscount Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies.3 The initial purpose of the port was to export the coal which geologist Albert Ernest Kitson had discovered in Enugu. In August 1913, the Governor–General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard wrote to Harcourt, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, "in the absence of any convenient local name, I would respectfully ask your permission to call this Port Harcourt." To this the Secretary of State replied "It gives me pleasure to accede to your suggestion that my name should be associated with the new Port." 4
Geography and infrastructure
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Imperial conversion
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The main city of Port Harcourt is the Port Harcourt town in the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, consisting of the former European quarters now called old Government reservation area (GRA) and the Borokiri and New layout areas. The Port Harcourt Urban Area (Port Harcourt metropolis) is made up of the city itself and parts of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.5 Important neighbouring towns of Port Harcourt are Diobu which is a Rebisi settlement, Abuloma which is an Okrika settlement, Isaka which is an Okrika settlement, Woji which is an Ikwere settlement, Alesa Eleme which is an Ogoni settlement and many other Ikwere clans. All these settlements today are now collectively known as Greater Port Harcourt.
Some of Port Harcourt's more popular and well-known residential areas are Port Harcourt Township; better known simply as "Town", G.R.A phases 1-5, Abuloma, Amadi-ama, Amadi Flats, and Borokiri. The main industrial area is located in Trans Amadi.
The city plays host to the rivers state unıversıty of Science and technology however there is a University of Port Harcourt which is interestingly not within the actual confines of the city.
The Podium Block of Rivers State Secretariat is an icon of the city. An eighteen storey building, it has the tallest building in the South/South and South/East Geopolitical zones combined. The city has an international airport, Port Harcourt International Airport, two seaports (F.O.T Onne, PortHarcourt Wharf), two stadiums (Sharks Stadium and Liberation Stadium) and two refineries.
The city is sprawling in nature as building codes and zoning regulations are poorly enforced. Land is cleared and 'lean to' buildings constructed sometimes overnight. This adds to flooding and sanitation problems since with no proper drainage or sewer system, parts of the city flood during the very heavy monsoon-type rains that fall for half the year.6
Economy
The city is a major industrial center as it has a large number of multinational firms as well as other industrial concerns, particularly business related to the petroleum industry. It is the chief oil-refining city in Nigeria, oil being one of Nigeria's most important commodities and the main foreign exchange earner.
Security issues
In recent times, the activities of several armed militant gangs has cast a huge shadow on life and commerce in the once peaceful town. These gangs that for the most part claim to fight for the interest of the indigenous people of Rivers State and the Niger Delta region of Nigeria by asking for a share Nigeria's oil wealth, are however better noted and feared for violent conduct that include random and targeted killings, arson, kidnappings of both foreign workers and indigenous people and bombings. After a spate of violence in 2007, a curfew was imposed on the town, this was however lifted by the Governor of Rivers State in the last days of 2007. On New Year's Eve 2007, Port Harcourt was once again rocked by violence which left at least sixteen people dead. Ateke Tom, the leader of one of the more prominent militias claimed responsibility for most of the fatalities.
References
- ^ "Port Harcourt". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
- ^ "Port Harcourt in the grip of warlords". www.vanguardngr.com. Vanguard (Lagos) via nigeriaworld.com, Thursday, September 9, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
- ^ "Welcome to Port Harcourt". AfricanCities.net. White Pages Limited. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
- ^ http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Lewis:Vernon:Harcourt.htm
- ^ Ogbonna, D.N. / Amangabara, G.T. / Ekere, T.O.: "Urban solid waste generation in Port Harcourt metropolis and its implications for waste management", Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume: 18 Issue: 1; 2007
- ^ "RSG moves to check flooding in PH". www.thetidenews.com. The Tide (Port Harcourt), Thursday, May 18, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
External links
- [1]
- The Expat's Guide to Port Harcourt
- Photos of Nigeria: Port Harcourt city and Rivers State, and the petroleum industry there
- Official Site of the River State Government
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