Port Harcourt widely
known as Nigeria’s Garden City is a vibrant and bubbling city in the country. It is a place every Nigerian with taste for good things of life want to visit and spend their vacations. At a time, it was common gossip that the most fashionable, hospitable and beautiful women in Africa were in Port Harcourt. The emergence of Agbani Darego from the Riverine speaking area of the state as the first African to clinch the coveted Crown of Miss World reinforced the talk that the most beautiful queens were found in the trendy city of oil and gas, hospitality and entertainment as well as home away from home for all classes of visitors and investors to the state.
However, it is a common knowledge that life is not cheap in Port Harcourt, especially in this period of economic recession in Nigeria, but this has not affected the night life scenario in the state capital as the city still bubbles with fun and relaxation made possible by the relative peace and security that exist in the state today.
Some of the elements that have made nigh life vibrant and amazing in the city include the cinemas and movies that help the individuals to relax and leave behind their troubles for a while. They are made to entertain and teach different moral lessons that we could apply in our daily lives.
The movies provide good past time for our ever growing population of fun lovers in the state as they show the latest Nollywood and blockbuster international films. The popular movie houses include Genesis Delux cinemas Tombia Street, GRA Phase 2, Silverbird ‘Showtime’ Cinemas at former Obi-Wali Cultural Centre Abonnema Wharf Road, Port Harcourt, Icinema Xscape Centre, Stadium Road, Port Harcourt.
Others include Enterprise Talent Nigeri, Oroworukwo Port Harcourt, Eja Montage Movie theatre among others.
There are also over 297 popular hotels in the state that provide standard hospitality services with conducive accommodation, choice, assorted local and international cuisines, exotic drinks, live dance bands, etc.
Apart from the movie houses and hotels, there are wide variety of night clubs scattered around the city where fun seekers go to enjoy unadulterated fun, socialise, dance, wine and dine. In virtually all major streets of Port Harcourt, there are also drinking spots, blaring naija jamz from giant speakers from 8pm and sometimes till dawn. They also offer assorted drinks to their customers and some even have dance floors with mesmerising lightning which make it difficult to differentiate them from night clubs.
Investigations show that most of these entertainment outlets thrive in the state because of the activities of call girls, strip dancers and prostitutes who partronise these hangouts. You see some of them in their radiance and beauty at red light districts in the New GRA axis of Port Harcourt where most of the night clubs are located. It is not unusual that most guys begin their evenings with their lady friends at the cinema houses from where they besiege the drinking bars, hotels and clubs.
At these joints, you see all manners of charming babes of different ages, shapes and sizes who are out for ‘business’ mostly at the weekends. Guys on their part have categorized these girls, for instance there are those nicknamed 100 level (those between 18 and 21 years) and they are the ones most patronised. The girls prefer to spend the night at the hotels where the guys shield them away from harassment and embarrassment from their girlfriends and wives.
Interesting enough, sex workers are essential for the survival of these joints, especially in large metropolitan cities such as Port Harcourt as they provide opportunity for unfaithful husbands, flirting bachelors and playboys who need the prostitutes to satisfy their sexual urges in exchange for money.
Fast food business and suya sellers also see the night life as a lucrative business opportunity as the night crawlers also buy their goods, the taxi drivers who hang around the cinema houses, hotels, clubs and bars to take passengers home after a night full of fun also earn their pay, even security operatives are not left out as they are hired by the operators to provide security at their various joints and they pay handsomely for the services rendered. It therefore seems that almost everybody enjoys a piece of the action.
This development makes it difficult for the society to checkmate the nefarious activities of some of the operators and their patrons; which explains why night life thrives in the state despite the economic meltdown facing the country as their activities continue to dominate the entertainment climate in the city.
Jacob Obinna
