Lest We Forget (Part 1)

A Social Media Activist Iniobiong Umana once wrote; “Remember when the city of Port Harcourt use to be called, “the Garden City”, because of its beauty and cleanliness. All of that is no more today. Port Harcourt is suffocated with urban dirt and the city looks squalid with obnoxious fumes from heaps of refuse everywhere”. My response was quick I said – it is all about growth, it happens to all cities, London, New York, Lagos etc. And I added, that, what we should be discussing is urban renewal measures and expansion.
My intention was not to dismiss his candid observation, but to bring him up to speed with the story of Port Harcourt and its urban logistics. First the name Garden City of Port Harcourt was given to the city before the Civil War. What really made the City Garden City was the fact that the old city, especially Government Reservation areas were well planned, well laid out. Most importantly the city enjoyed the ambience of a Garden or Gardens. Every neighbourhood had well pruned flowers and indeed every home had gardens planted in their front and backyards.
There were well laid out parks and gardens for relaxation in Government reservation areas and city centre. A place cannot be called a Garden if it is squalid and filthy.
Those who planned the city ensured that every building had sanitary lanes in place separating it from another building. Sanitary lanes were made permanent feature of building plans.
The beauty of Port Harcourt was part of its civilization. The city of Port Harcourt was a whiteman’s city which was designed to possess the features of metropolitan London and Liverpool. Surely, the Whiteman built a city for himself. However, he also built for the elite class and the working class.
The city had three areas of Town, G.R.A., then called European quarters, D/Line and expanded into mile One, two, three and Borokiri.
These were also planned with well laid out streets. There was a well supervised urban control structure. The municipal council was very visible, supervising monitoring and enforcing all town planning laws.
The implication is that there was a strong municipal urban governance structure in place, that supervised all aspects of urban logistics.
The city which was built in 1913, has a seaport, Railway, and Airport. It enjoyed the status of a world class city.
The garden sobriquet was a well deserved name, a home of roses and lilies, ornamental trees, and beautiful ambience, clean and welcoming to all.
That was not the city we saw in 1970, through the military era and indeed not the city we see today.
Indeed, it is only a City we dream to have. The Garden City that Gabriel Okara saw in his poems, after the civil war, a “Garden City lumbering out of a bad dream”.
The garden had turned into bushes and roses were overgrown with weeds. This was his poetic depiction of a city that had lost its glory.
What efforts were made to restore the Garden City which many children born either during the war or 1970 did not see?
First, the city began to expand uncontrollably with shanties springing up because of population explosion.
What is today Obio/Akpor became a very large expanded territory of Port Harcourt with satellite towns springing up everywhere.
The then military governor of Rivers State Police Commissioner Oyakhilome during his dispensation thought the planting of flowers alone was what makes a Garden City.
Governor Rotimi Amaechi saw expansion as the sole solution to decongest the city and so came with the concept of Greater Port Harcourt.
Today, Governor Wike who came to the saddle of power with his new Rivers Vision in 2015 has come with the Vision of urban restoration through a radical renewal policy.
He began this well thought out policy with restoration of public buildings to give the city a face lift. A good example is the Port Harcourt Produce House, now restored and called Chief Emmanuel Wonukwuru Aguma House. We also have the former water line building restructured and given to the Health Management Board. So many other buildings scattered all over the city which became derelict have been restored in addition to the construction of new ones.
The entire stretch of Old and New G.R.A., now have well laid out reconstructed streets and drainage. Trans Amadi Industrial Layout and many parts of the city have been renewed with dual carriage highways with illuminating street lights.
Urban renewal is a scheme intended to restore derelict city back to a functional state, according to Iniobong Umana.
This is the city Port Harcourt is returning to. The construction of eight Flyovers on Aba road, Ikwerre Road linking East West road as well, through Rumuokoro serves a dual purpose of renewal and expansion.
With Flyovers you ease traffic grid lock and at the same time expand the city space on the highway. Thus road transportation is expanded to accommodate more city commuters in and out of town.
Flyovers represent the city logistics used to achieve a linkage between the city and satellite towns in the Greater Port Harcourt area and other parts of the now conurbating mega city of Port Harcourt.
This makes a good city expansion plan which is the creation of new living areas within the proximity of the growing city possible. Port Harcourt is now growing into a beautiful mega city with space for sanitation and gardens. Congestion and squalor cannot grow a beautiful Garden but a renewed and expanded city can.

By: Bon Woke