Licensed from Columbia University Press
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; it was named after Lewis, Viscount Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies. The initial purpose of the port was to export the coal which geologist Albert Ernest Kitson had discovered in Enugu.On January 12, 2008, a tanker crash, explosion and fire in Port Harcourt left at least 30 dead.
Geography and infrastructure
The main city of Port Harcourt is the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. It has Azikiwe Road, Aggrey Road, Eastern Bye-Pass, the beginnings of PHC-Aba Express Road and Ikwere Road as its major roads. The Port Harcourt Urban Area (Port Harcourt metropolis) is made up of the city itself and Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. Its major roads are the extensions of PHC-Aba Express Road and Ikwere Road, Olu Obasanjo Road, Airport Road, East-West Road, Refinery Road, Stadium Roads and many others.
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, Rumibekwe Housing Estate, Shell Residential Estate,and Elekahia Estate. 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 the 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. Tom Ateke, the leader of one of the more prominent militias claimed responsibility for most of the fatalities.References
External links
- 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
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday June 29, 2008 at 14:17:45 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
