Port Harcourt is the capital and largest city in Rivers State, Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is located in the Niger Delta. As of 2023, Port Harcourt's urban population is estimated at 3.5m. The population of the metropolitan area of Port Harcourt is almost twice its urban area population with a 2015 United Nations estimate of 2,344,000. In 1950, the population of Port Harcourt was 59,752. Port Harcourt has grown by 150,844 since 2015, which represents a 4.99% annual change. Historically it has been known as "Ígwúóchán" in the Ikwerre language, also Obomuotu Country within which a few other smaller areas were called Diobu.
The Ijaw people, otherwise known as the Ijo people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant population clusters in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers. They also occupy Edo, Ondo, and parts of Akwa Ibom.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), is a social movement organization representing the indigenous Ogoni people of Rivers State, Nigeria. The Ogoni contend that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), along with other petroleum multinationals and the Nigerian government, have destroyed their environment, polluted their rivers, and provided no benefits in return for enormous oil revenues extracted from their lands.
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical zone, one state (Ondo) from South West geopolitical zone and two states from South East geopolitical zone.
Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa Ibom to the east, and Bayelsa and Delta to the west. The State capital, Port Harcourt, is a metropolis that is considered to be the commercial center of the Nigerian oil industry.
The Ogonis are a people in the Rivers South East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a 1,050-square-kilometre (404-square-mile) homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.
Bonny Island is situated at the southern edge of Rivers State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria near Port Harcourt. Ferries are the main form of transport to and from the island. The local language spoken in Bonny Island is Ubani, an Ijaw language. It is similar to Ndoki, a dialect of the Igbo language.
The current conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw. Ethnic and political unrest continued throughout the 1990s despite the return to democracy and the election of the Obasanjo government in 1999. Struggle for oil wealth and environmental harm over its impacts has fueled violence between ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups, Nigerian military and police forces, notably the Nigerian Mobile Police. The violence has contributed to Nigeria's ongoing energy supply crisis by discouraging foreign investment in new power generation plants in the region.
The Niger Delta Congress (NDC) is a socio-political organization of the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta region. The NDC was established on the 26th of December 2019 in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, to serve the purpose of uniting the minority nationalities of the Niger Delta region as a means to achieving political and economic autonomy for the peoples of the region. The NDC is under the leadership of an executive council that comprises representatives of the different nationalities that make up the region. The current executive of the NDC which is in acting capacity is led by Nubari Saatah as President, and Mudiaga Ogboru as its National Spokesperson.
The Kalabari are a sub-group of the Ijaw people living in the eastern Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Originally, they were known as the Awome. The name Kalabari was derived from their ancestor Perebo Kalabari who was a son of Mein Owei. Their original settlement was spelt as Calabar by the Portuguese which was pronounced Kalabari. This settlement (town) was abandoned as the people moved to other fishing settlements. Portuguese settlers continued to maintain the name Calabari which became surrounded by the Efik people of Duke town. When the British came the word Calabari was pronounced as Calabar (Kalaba) instead of Kalabari. At this time the original Ijoid Kalabaris had moved to a new location which became the new Calabar territory since the old Calabar is occupied by different people. Old Calabar became an Efik town with time which has the name Calabar.
Dẹgẹma is an Edoid language spoken in two separate communities on Degema Island in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, by about 120,000 people, according to 1991 census figures. The two communities are Usokun-Degema and Degema Town in the Degema Local Government Area in Rivers State. Each community speaks a mutually intelligible variety of Dẹgẹma, known by the names of the communities speaking them: the Usokun variety and the Degema Town variety. Both varieties are similar in their phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties.
The Ikwerre is one of the Igbo Subgroups in Rivers State. They are the biggest ethnic group in Rivers state.Traditional history has classified Ikwerre into seven groups called "Ikwerre Essa". They are Elele, Isiokpo, Rumuji, Emohua, Choba, Aluu, Igwuruta and Obio group. This division was recognized by Forde and Jones; (1950) in their ethnographic study of the Igboid speaking peoples of Eastern Nigeria. It was also in line with this grouping those seven customary Courts were established in Ikwerre during the Colonial administration. These Courts were located at Elele, Isiokpo, Umuji, Emohua, Choba, Aluu and Obio in Ikwerreland.
Obio-Akpor is a local government area in the metropolis of Port Harcourt, one of the major centres of economic activities in Nigeria, and one of the major cities of the Niger Delta, located in Rivers State, with industries and companies like Pabod Breweries, Coca-Cola Company, Indomie Company and Portharcourt Electricity Distribution Plc. The local government area covers 260 km2 and at the 2006 Census held a population of 464,789. Its postal code or ZIP code is 500102. Obio-Akpor has its headquarters at Rumuodomaya and it is peopled by the Ikwerre. Obio-Akpor is also known for fisheries and aquaculture.
Ogbia is a traditional Kingdom and Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The headquarters of both the Traditional Kingdom and Local Government is located in Ogbia Town at 4°39′00″N6°16′00″E.
Chief Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas was a Nigerian politician who was appointed Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture in 1989, then Minister of Aviation in General Ibrahim Babangida's cabinet. In 1999, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Productivity, and in 2000, Minister of Tourism in the Olusegun Obasanjo cabinet, leaving office in January 2001.
Ikwerre is a Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Isiokpo.it is an igbo subgroup in Rivers State, it is also an ethnic group occupying the upland region of Rivers State. It shares boundaries with Imo State to the north, Emohua to the west,Etche to the east,and Obio-Akpor to the south.
Kalabari is an Ijo language of Nigeria spoken in Rivers State and Bayelsa State by the Awome people. Its three dialects are mutually intelligible. The Kalabari dialect is one of the best-documented varieties of Ijo, and as such is frequently used as the prime example of Ijo in linguistic literature.
The Kaiama Declaration was issued by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) of Nigeria on 11 December 1998 to attribute the political crisis in Nigeria to the struggle for the control of oil mineral resources, while asserting that the degradation of the environment of Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian State arise mainly because Ijaw people have been robbed of their natural rights to ownership and control of their land and resources. The council was formed in the town of Kaiama after 5,000 Ijaw people representing over 40 Ijaw clans, chose to articulate their aspirations for the Ijaw people, and to demand an end to 40 years of environmental damage and underdevelopment in the region.
The South South is one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria representing both a geographic and political region of the country's eastern coast. It comprises six states – Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers.
The 2023 Rivers State gubernatorial election will take place on 18 March 2023, to elect the Governor of Rivers State, concurrent with elections to the Rivers State House of Assembly as well as twenty-seven other gubernatorial elections and elections to all other state houses of assembly. The election—which was postponed from its original 11 March date—will be held three weeks after the presidential election and National Assembly elections. Incumbent PDP Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third term.
