HISTORY OF PORT HARCOURT CITY LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Port Harcourt is the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River and islocated in the Niger Delta. River State has a population of about five million people, these people come from various ethnic nationalities namely, Abua, Andoni, Ekpeye, Engenni,

Etche, lbani, Ilkwerre, Kalabari, Ndoni, Okrika,etc.

These ethnic groups have been in existence even before the coming the colonia masters. Rivers State is made up of 23 Local Government Areas.

Port Harcourt was founded in 1912 by the British in an area traditionally inhabited by the Ikwerre, an Igbo subgroup. 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.

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."

The Port Harcourt port is one of the leading ports of the Nigeria and its exports include palm oil, petroleum, coal, tin, palm products, cocoa, and peanuts. Industries of the area include sawmilling, auto assembly, food canning, flour milling, tobacco processing, and the manufacture of rubber, glass, metal, and paper products, cement, petroleum products, paint, enamelware, bicycles, furniture, and soap.

The Port Harcourt Urban Area (Port Harcourt metropolis) is made up of the city itself and parts of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.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, Rumuomasi, Orogbum nu Oro Abali (known as Ogbunuabali), Rumuola, Diobu, Amadi Flats, and Borokiri. The main industrial area is located in Trans Amadi. Port Harcourt City, which the capital of Rivers State, is highly congested as it is the only major city in the state. A law has recently passed by the state house and governor Amaechi's administration to develop to the surrounding communities as part of the effort to decongest Port Harcourt. The greater Port Harcourt City, as it is officially known, spans eight local government areas that include Port Harcourt, Okrika, Obio/Akpor, Ikwerre, Oyigbo and Ogu/Bolo. Also, other ethnicities include Tai, and Eleme.

The city plays host to the Rivers State University of Science and Technology; there is also a University of Port Harcourt, which is Located in Obio/Akpor which was carved out of Port Harcourt Local Government Area for ease of administration. 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, Port Harcourt Wharf), two stadiums (Sharks Stadium which is actually the civic centre) and Liberation Stadium located in Rumuomasi and two refineries.