Restoring Port Harcourt’s Garden City Status

Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital is fondly called the ‘Garden City.’ This appellation was not by happenstance. It was as a result of the aesthetic beauty of Port Harcourt in those days. Today however, Port Harcourt has lost its beauty due to unhealthy ecosystem and poor attitude.

Barefaced is the menace of chaotic traffic congestion in the city. In spite of the impressive efforts of the administration of Governor Rotimi Amaechi in the area of road rehabilitation, road congestion is still a nightmare in the city.

My independent research shows that traffic queues creates a socio-psychological imbalance on city life and usually results in traffic disobedience by road users, particularly bus and taxi drivers. I mention them ahead of private road users because of the competition which always ensues among them in their desperate attempt to compete for space and commuters.

Disobedience of traffic rules is a serious menace among Port Harcourt road users and should not be treated lightly. Many road users particularly the commercial bus drivers and law enforcement agents take the risk of of taking one way traffic. Each time I see it happen, I wonder if this risky traffic behaviour can be tolerated in European cities like London or Amsterdam. If it can not, why should we tolerate it here in Port Harcourt?

It is a common knowledge that every one out of five cars in Port Harcourt city carries a dent or a scratch. I want to subscribe to a situation where bus and taxi drivers will undergo at least three months intensive driving training after which they will be given commercial driver’s identity cards so that when they violate traffic rules, they should be made to pay heavily or have their identity cards withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the indiscriminate use of sirens by company drivers and law enforcement agents is constituting a nuisance to Port Harcourt residents. If they must use siren, they should be made to collect licenses subject to renewal, while upon abuse of its usage, they should be made to pay heavy fines to the Port Harcourt Municipal authorities.

Recreation is another way of making cities lively. But recreational life in Port Harcourt has not been fully explored. Attempts by successive governments to build recreational parks for Port Harcourt dwellers have not recorded any success. A good example is the Port Harcourt Peace Park just before Bori Camp. Before now, it used to be a golf course. But today, it has been taken over by rodents and reptiles.

The same fate befell Rumuola Park which has now been converted to emergency motor park. All these debilitate the beauty of the city.

Modern recreational facilities in cities like Nairobi, Johannesburg and Dubai have continually attracted global tourism and these generate huge revenue in these cities. Even here in Nigeria, Cross Rivers State depends largely on tourism for its revenue. Calabar is so clean and the beauty of the city has attracted a lot of tourists into the city. The same can be done here in Port Harcourt with the creation of beaches along coastal areas, just as Lagos has Lekki and bar beaches.

The next issue is waste management. The problem of waste has been a difficult thing in Nigeria such that at the entrance of most cities, you find large volume of refuse dumps everywhere. This is disgusting. Here in Port Harcourt, the government has been doing much in area of waste management, but more needs to be done.

However, waste management should not be left for the government alone. Individuals and private sector must join in the management process. I think at this stage, we must recycle waste properly. Apart from enforcing sanitation laws, people must understand that the beauty of Port Harcourt is a social responsibility of all. Individuals must realise that our environment must be clean; we must dispose wastes into proper garbage dump sites. Both solid and liquid wastes from our domestic homes must be adequately disposed, while we also evacuate the blocked drainages regularly. We must be at watch especially during the rainy season when drainages are easily blocked, making it impossible for smooth flow of water and thus resulting in flood.

To be continued.

Benjamin is of the Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt.

Ubleble Benjamin