A Portrait Of Urban Renewal

A local barber in our neighbourhood whose shop was once located on the edge of an uneven and flooded road, is now enjoying a relief. After moving out of his store to give room for demolition and renovation, he has moved back into a freshly painted blue store with the quality and standard approved by government under its urban renewal scheme. The neighbourhood now has a widened road with good drainage and improved space. This has attracted the citing of modern stores that now host boutiques, business centers, hair salons, shopping centers and-imagine- a local library.

Folks in the neighbourhood once joked about the landlords who might increase rent in the new neighbourhood. The reason for their fear is simple: The reconstructions of the road and the new standard for fence have given the Ohamini neighborhood an air of GRA.

“It’s fine”, said the barber who was happy that Governor Chibuike Amaechi is addressing present development lapses in the city and financing it with public fund.

A middle-aged man in the barbing salon who came to trim his overgrown beards said he has used his Pentax 3.34 Megapixels camera with optical zoom to document the new Port Harcourt, of which Ohamini Crescent is a part. He captured some parts of the city turning green with the newly planted gardens embracing the streets and creating aesthetic beauty. When night fell, he caught the newly dualised Rumuola-Rumuokwuta Road basking under the bright glow of street lights an urban landscape that at night brought out the beauty of Governor Amaechi’s new Port Harcourt. He described it as a city by twilight, a picture post card of a new town.

But we consider this resounding success which has made Port Harcourt a new titan in urban development in Nigeria a tip of the iceberg. Amaechi has also embarked on something even more ambitious; the Greater Port Harcourt City Project. It is a project that will over the next ten years turn the sprawling outskirts of the city into outlying business and tourist districts.

With that Port Harcourt will throw out its status as a compact city with narrow streets that lead to nowhere and where motorists spend hectic hours trying to get home with discouraging delays. To be sure, motorists will in the future easily skirt through the Greater Port Harcourt City, figuring out their way from Onne through Okirika to Isaka, Ogbakiri, Abara and Isiokpo, to mention a few. It will be Port Harcourt’s great swing to mega polis.

The buzz that built around Governor Amechi’s urban renewal project isn’t just about improved streets, public buildings, parks, gardens, business and residential areas. It is all about the resulting growth spurt this will yield in the future.

There will be improved trade and commerce which could work magic in Port Harcourt’s status as the nation’s treasure base. There will be improved manufacturing because the expansion of road network and the creation of satellite towns will ease traffic congestion and help manufacturers move goods and raw materials around. Moreover, well targeted social programmes such as transport, waste management, housing, water resources, electricity, shopping malls and recreational facilities will reduce poor living standard in the city.

With the rehabilitation of old dilapidated primary schools in the city, school enrolment in public schools will increase because of the increasing benefits. The government is spending and modernising structures and creating conducive environment for learning, especially mathematics, science and reasoning skills needed in today’s work place.

Above all, new investments will be attracted to a city that is becoming more friendly— where business can thrive, from furniture making centre to entertainment This is not to talk about industries that may spring up at the axis of the Greater Port Harcourt City to produce a wide variety of goods from electronics to chemicals.

Governor Chibuike Amechi”s urban development project has sent the right message to every government:

Well intended reforms have to make visible progress and translate public policy blueprint to goods and services. He is aligning his development strategy’ to the forces of globalisation and the 2015 target of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal. It is expected that by 2015 developing countries which will experience growth surge in education, housing, energy and health will have a turn for better in standard of living index.

In fact, the Governor is rationalising and modernising urban development programme and policies of government to reflect the demands and opportunities of the 21st century. In the next ten years, Greater Port Harcourt City will be a place where culture, business, recreation and entertainment will swing the city into a positively rising urban statistics. Our thriving neighborhood is already adding to that figure.

Otonna resides in Port Harcourt.

Victor Otonna