Port Harcourt, city in southeastern Nigeria, capital of Rivers State, on the Bonny River, in the Niger Delta. The city is a leading port of the country, a road and rail hub, and a major industrial center. Its exports include palm oil, petroleum, coal, tin, columbite, cocoa, and peanuts. Port Harcourt has prospered as the regional headquarters for the petroleum industry. It has a large petroleum refinery and storage facilities. Other industries of the area include sawmilling, automobile assembly, food canning, tobacco processing, and the manufacture of rubber, glass, metal, paper products, cement, tires, and beer.
The local fishing industry is also important to the city’s economy. While the Ijaw people are dominant in the region, the city itself is ethnically diverse. The port was established by the British in 1915 and serves eastern Nigeria and parts of northern Nigeria. Population (1995 estimate) 399,700.
DAY 1 - As I began my tour of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. This is one of the richest oil cities in the country. - Human Land. We went to the Oil Mill market, a popular local market in the city that only opens on Wednesdays. They have just about anything one could need...jewelry, textile, house hold items, car parts etc. We did some shopping and later on went to a mom and pop joint close-by known as 'Mama-put'. The preparation of the food isn't the greatest; it is prepared outdoors with flies around but tastes delicious! After our meal we returned home for the day.
DAY 2 - We went downtown to see the sites. The downtown does not have tall buildings rather it has little houses which look like they had been built ages ago. People sold things items like underwear, fruits, electronics etc on the side of the road. Unlike other areas, the downtown seemed to be dirty filled with thugs at night time. There were army officers on the road conducting traffic and pulling people over for what they referred to as "stop and search" a means to get bribery from law offenders. - Area Studies
DAY 3 - Located in the city are the University of Port Harcourt aka Uniport (1975) and Rivers State University of Science and Technology aka RUST (1971). They are located far away from each other. - Spatial. First we went to Uniport and took a tour of the school. We noticed the layout of the school was nice but due to poor management, most of the property was wrecked and abandoned. We drove down to RUST which is about 2 hrs away from Uniport. This used to be a prestigious university but was suffering the invasion of gang members on campus. We also visited the Holy Rosary Secondary school which was established by the British. This is an all girls' school and has obtained a negative reputation over the past years.
DAY 4 - We visited Shell Petroleum plant, the biggest and richest plant in Port Harcourt. We took a tour of the plant and went down to the oldest park in the city called Isaac Boro park. This park/garden was built during the days of the British in the country. To end the tour, we went to the Port Harcourt Tourist Beach, a major attraction for the city. They had various activities going on like masquerade performances and trade fair. There were plenty of fishermen in canoes fishing till night time; that river is where a lot of the town's fish comes from.- Earth science.
