Across the world, cities have been known to design, build and decorate their important public edifices and other structures in forms and patterns that serve to mark them out from what is generally available. In some cases, such stand-out buildings have become so uniquely iconic that they are selected to be the symbol by which their host cities are easily identified. Call it the Face of the City.
For example, the presence of the Statue of Liberty in the background of any photograph is enough to suggest New York City as the object’s geolocation. The same is true of the White House in Washington, DC; Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; the sky-piercing Space Needle in Seattle; and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; all in America.
In Europe, such structures will include the Big Ben clock tower in London; Eiffel Tower in Paris; Brandenberg Gate in Berlin; and Red Square in Moscow.
Elsewhere on the globe, mention will hardly skip the Sydney Opera House in Australia; Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro; Acropolis in Athens; the palatial Taj Mahal in Agra (India); and the Arabian sail-boat shaped Burj Khalifa Hotel (former Burj al Arab) in Dubai; among a few others.
Much as these buildings have been listed for their respective cities, they are by no means the only unique symbols by which some of these beautiful cities can be readily identified in any collection of some panoramic world-city pictures. Given this, therefore, the City of New York can still boast of its concrete jungle of exquisite skyscrapers, the long yellow taxis, and the flag-studded United Nations Headquarters building. Washington will also be wont to showcase its popular Monument and The Pentagon building.
For London, its legendary bridge across River Thames, the red double-decker buses, Westminster parliament building, and the expansive offshore plantation of wind turbines known as the London Array, are some necessary additions.
Now, let’s come back home to Nigeria where there is hardly any human settlement in the class of the cities mentioned above. Expectedly, our examples here will be far less sophisticated and magnificent. They include the National Assembly Complex, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, and Central Bank Headquarters building in Abuja; National Arts Theatre in Lagos; Cocoa House in Ibadan; Tinapa Complex in Calabar; and Abia Tower in Umuahia.
Let me hasten to add that this was probably what the former Imo State Governor and now Senator, Rochas Okorocha, had aimed to achieve with his controversial ‘Aka Chukwu’ monument in Owerri.
In the case of Port Harcourt, it is not clear if any project had ever been purposely conceived, designed and built to serve as the city’s symbolic image. To the best of my knowledge, the closest any previous regime had come to attempting anything in this regard was in the early 1990s when the Rufus Ada-George administration mounted an artwork atop the Point Block building at the State Secretariat Complex.
It was essentially a cast of two giant hands holding up to the sky an equally crafted map of the Old Rivers State in apparent demonstration of the state’s initial slogan — A Dedication To God And The Nation. And, lest it skips me, no one should bother to go looking for this piece of art because it’s long been dismantled.
Even though the city has some architecturally remarkable edifices of its own, among which are Hotel Presidential, NDDC Head Office building, Point Block, the renovated Old Brick House building within the Government House court, and the newly built Pleasure Park, I still think that none of these structures attempts to tell the story of Port Harcourt and its people.
Frankly, my idea of an iconic symbol for the Rivers State capital will have nothing to do with the city’s status as the hub of Nigeria’s petroleum industry. Already, the state’s current official sobriquet — Treasure Base Of The Nation — has taken care of that. Instead, I would prefer to see (on the same Point Block building) the giant sculpture of a fisherman casting his net from a canoe with his feet maintaining that trademark delicate balance that forces the uninitiated observer to cringe while holding their breath.
And, for a tinge of rarity, his canoe should be steered by a woman as only little else can serve to symbolise the increasing role of our women in the daily execution of this manly economic chore.
My insistence on the use of the Point Block is because, apart from its surrounding ambience, the 17-storey building is currently the tallest available and arguably the most visible from more sections of the town. Again, this would also make it easier for fun seekers who may wish to deliberately bomb their photographs with such iconic structure, even from afar.
Whatever is the eventual choice symbol, the government (especially State and PHALGA) should strive to deliberately promote it; even if the task requires displaying close-up pictures of the lucky object on some Welcome and Goodbye billboards at strategic points on the city’s fringes.
Port Harcourt deserves a famous architectural or sculptural landmark. The need to raise one had never been more expedient than now, especially going by the city’s rapidly rising profile as an international community and the ongoing impressive attempt to regenerate the place.
Let us, therefore, ensure that we get an iconic symbol befitting of Nigeria’s Garden City. Something any Rivers person can easily identify in a picture and proudly say, This is Port Harcourt.

By: Ibelema Jumbo