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Port Harcourt

[hahr-kert, -kawrt, -kohrt]

Port Harcourt, city (1991 est. pop. 362,000), SE Nigeria, a deepwater port on the Bonny River in the Niger delta. It is an industrial and commercial center where steel and aluminum products, pressed concrete, glass, tires, paint, footwear, furniture, and cigarettes are manufactured and bicycles and motor vehicles are assembled. Port Harcourt, the operational headquarters of the Nigerian petroleum industry, refines oil and pipes it mostly to Bonny for export. Palm oil and kernels, cacao, coal, tin, and peanuts are Port Harcourt's chief exports. The city is also a rail terminus and has an airport. Port Harcourt was founded by the British in 1912 and named for Lewis, Viscount Harcourt, secretary of state for the colonies (1910-15).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Port Harcourt

Port Harcourt is the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River and is located in the Niger Delta. The population of Port Harcourt is estimated at 1,620,214 (2007), the port harcourt Urban area is 2.7 milloin while the Greater Port Harcourt Area is almost 3.7 million in population.

History

Port Harcourt, referred to as "Igwe Ocha" by the Igbo and "Borokiri" by the Ijaw was purely a British town.

The new land was named after Lewis Vernon Harcourt who was the colonial administand. When the port was established in 1912, there was much controversy about the name it should receive. 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."

Geography and infrastructure

The main city of Port Harcourt is the Port Harcourt town which is called TOWN which is the former European quarters now called old Government reservation area (GRA) and the Borokiri and New layout areas. 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 and it is still expanding.

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, Borokiri, Rumuokoro,Rumodara, Woji, Presidential Housing Estate, Rumuibekwe Housing Estate, Shell Residential Estate,Elekahia Estate Oyigbo,Alesa Eleme,Chioba,Okuru,Okujagu,Kidney Island,Eagle Island,Gbundu,Ikpukulu, Isaka,Elechi,Rebisi,Iwofe,Rumulumeni. The main industrial area is located in Trans Amadi.

There are two universities within the city, the University of Port Harcourt and the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.

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.

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.