The Nation Newspaper

Tag: City

  • Joburg City festival holds maiden edition

    Joburg City festival holds maiden edition

    The Joburg City Tourism Association will host the very first Joburg City Festival scheduled for the week between Joy of Jazz and Arts Alive, meaning the inner city will come abuzz with activities for 3 weeks straight.

    The Joburg City Festival was launched on 17 – 19 May 2013, where the Joburg City Tourism Association, along with their members and partners JDA; Gautrain; Joburg Tourism Company and Gauteng Tourism, invited and hosted 76 journalists from stretches as far and wide as Botswana to Cape Town, to give them a taste of what the official festival in August will display.

    The festival will run over 9 days and the official programme will offer something for everyone! From art and cultural activaties; tours; music; dance parties; street sports; fashion and lots more.

    ”We are excited about the very first festival as it is ideally scheduled to link the two big cultural festivals, Joy of Jazz and Arts Alive, giving tourists, city dwellers and suburbanites an opportunity to explore their city. We hope that in future these 3 weeks of festivities will put Johannesburg on the map as a destination for winter breaks. The city has been undergoing a massive rejuvenation and the Joburg City Tourism Association endeavours to promote this and the city’s heritage through the festival,” said Margeaux Swartz, JCTA Director and spokesperson.

  • As the Garden City turns 100…

    This year will mark the centenary of the city of Port-Harcourt. Thus, in terms of seniority, the city is older than the contraption called Nigeria which will ‘mark’ its own 100 years of amalgamation next year. Many commentators have written about the propriety of celebrating Nigeria’s centenary. What is there to celebrate about the forceful union of the Southern and Northern parts of the country by British colonialists purely for administrative purposes without considering the wishes and desires of the indigenes of the land, they have wondered. They might have a point considering some of the problems this forced ‘marriage’ have caused which we are still battling with nearly a hundred years after it was consummated.

    Anyway, this piece is not about Lord Lugard’s creation that has become a problem to its people and the world at large. This is about a lovely city which was born out of necessity and has today become something those who conceived it can be proud of. A little background info and history will not go amiss here.

    Unlike most other major towns and cities in the country that developed from hamlets and villages founded by the local indigenous population, Port-Harcourt was a purpose-built creation of the then British colonial administration in the early part of the 20th century.

    After coal was discovered in Enugu in 1909, the administration then needed a port to export the product to Europe. Diobu or Iguocha, an area originally inhabited by the Ikwerre people, was chosen and by 1913, construction of a port town began. Seeking a more cosmopolitan name for the new town, Lord Lugard, the then Governor-General of Nigeria renamed it Port Harcourt in 1913, after Lewis Vernon Harcourt the then Secretary of State for the Colonies.

    From such small beginnings, Port-Harcourt has today grown into one of the most vibrant and bustling cities in the country. I spent some of my childhood and formative years in the city and I can tell you it was one of the best places in the country to grow up in. Back then, it was a peaceful, quiet and neat place full of trees and other greenery hence the nickname, ‘Garden city’.

    Today, the city has lost some of its innocence and it’s suffering from a malaise afflicting many major cities and towns in the country: overcrowding and overstretched infrastructure. Due to population explosion and perhaps, poor planning most of the roads are a motorist’s nightmare because of the heavy traffic jams which is nearly at par with that of Lagos. Housing too is over stretched thus making accommodation expensive and not for the poor.

    The administration of Governor Chibuike Amaechi, in trying to resolve some of these problems announced plans in 2009 for the creation of a new city to be called the Greater Port-Harcourt City. It’s a laudable plan which when implemented, will help decongest the city centre and improve the quality of life of the residents.

    Indeed, this is an idea that needs to be emulated by other states particularly heavily populated ones like Lagos. Lagos is long overdue for decongestion because of its huge population which has placed enormous strain on the available infrastructure. Thus, the creation of satellite towns that will reduce pressure on the city is something that needs to be considered as a matter of urgency as the population keeps growing each day.

    In its 100 years of existence, the city of Port-Harcourt has witnessed steady growth from a small colonial port to a bustling, commercial centre and the hub of the nation’s vital oil industry. It is one centenary celebration that a lot of people like me who have fond memories of the city will not begrudge. This is unlike that of Nigeria’s centenary which the Federal Government is planning to mark in a big way. To me, it’s a waste of funds and an exercise in futility. The government should focus on improving the lot of Nigerians rather than celebrating colonialism and the subjugation of our forefathers who fell to the British military might.

    Or it could build new towns and cities for with vision and proper planning, the country would have had more purpose-built cities like PH and Abuja. But that dream has been impossible due to the rapacious looting of public funds by those in positions of authority and their cohorts who cart away our resources to Europe and the U.S and lately Dubai and Asia-the newest destinations for the country’s looters and money-launderers.

  • As the Garden City turns 100…

    This year will mark the centenary of the city of Port-Harcourt. Thus, in terms of seniority, the city is older than the contraption called Nigeria which will ‘mark’ its own 100 years of amalgamation next year. Many commentators have written about the propriety of celebrating Nigeria’s centenary. What is there to celebrate about the forceful union of the Southern and Northern parts of the country by British colonialists purely for administrative purposes without considering the wishes and desires of the indigenes of the land, they have wondered. They might have a point considering some of the problems this forced ‘marriage’ have caused which we are still battling with nearly a hundred years after it was consummated.

    Anyway, this piece is not about Lord Lugard’s creation that has become a problem to its people and the world at large. This is about a lovely city which was born out of necessity and has today become something those who conceived it can be proud of. A little background info and history will not go amiss here.

    Unlike most other major towns and cities in the country that developed from hamlets and villages founded by the local indigenous population, Port-Harcourt was a purpose-built creation of the then British colonial administration in the early part of the 20th century.

    After coal was discovered in Enugu in 1909, the administration then needed a port to export the product to Europe. Diobu or Iguocha, an area originally inhabited by the Ikwerre people, was chosen and by 1913, construction of a port town began. Seeking a more cosmopolitan name for the new town, Lord Lugard, the then Governor-General of Nigeria renamed it Port Harcourt in 1913, after Lewis Vernon Harcourt the then Secretary of State for the Colonies.

    From such small beginnings, Port-Harcourt has today grown into one of the most vibrant and bustling cities in the country. I spent some of my childhood and formative years in the city and I can tell you it was one of the best places in the country to grow up in. Back then, it was a peaceful, quiet and neat place full of trees and other greenery hence the nickname, ‘Garden city’.

    Today, the city has lost some of its innocence and it’s suffering from a malaise afflicting many major cities and towns in the country: overcrowding and overstretched infrastructure. Due to population explosion and perhaps, poor planning most of the roads are a motorist’s nightmare because of the heavy traffic jams which is nearly at par with that of Lagos. Housing too is over stretched thus making accommodation expensive and not for the poor.

    The administration of Governor Chibuike Amaechi, in trying to resolve some of these problems announced plans in 2009 for the creation of a new city to be called the Greater Port-Harcourt City. It’s a laudable plan which when implemented, will help decongest the city centre and improve the quality of life of the residents.

    Indeed, this is an idea that needs to be emulated by other states particularly heavily populated ones like Lagos. Lagos is long overdue for decongestion because of its huge population which has placed enormous strain on the available infrastructure. Thus, the creation of satellite towns that will reduce pressure on the city is something that needs to be considered as a matter of urgency as the population keeps growing each day.

    In its 100 years of existence, the city of Port-Harcourt has witnessed steady growth from a small colonial port to a bustling, commercial centre and the hub of the nation’s vital oil industry. It is one centenary celebration that a lot of people like me who have fond memories of the city will not begrudge. This is unlike that of Nigeria’s centenary which the Federal Government is planning to mark in a big way. To me, it’s a waste of funds and an exercise in futility. The government should focus on improving the lot of Nigerians rather than celebrating colonialism and the subjugation of our forefathers who fell to the British military might.

    Or it could build new towns and cities for with vision and proper planning, the country would have had more purpose-built cities like PH and Abuja. But that dream has been impossible due to the rapacious looting of public funds by those in positions of authority and their cohorts who cart away our resources to Europe and the U.S and lately Dubai and Asia-the newest destinations for the country’s looters and money-launderers.

  • Amosun and the changing face of Rock City

    Amosun and the changing face of Rock City

    SIR: Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, has been a screaming metaphor of governmental failure since the return of civil rule in 1999. The state capital has been on the wrong side of the developmental chart ever since.

    A good number of those who held sway as governor and public office-holders in the state during the locust era of the military, and under civil rule did not do more than pay lip service to the gnawing problem of development and the rot in the city. The result is that the city is languishing under the heavy yoke of bad roads and the twin problem of flood and erosion.

    What would have passed as an average effort by the administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel to address this sore in the heart of one of Nigeria’s foremost cities ended in a fiasco, as people who were said to have been mobilized for major contracts in the city simply took a walk after collecting full payment for the jobs.

    Officials had always explained the failure of the government to address the plight of the city on the premise that Abeokuta is an ancient town whose plan is lacking in adequate implementation.

    However, the story is changing. At the inception of his administration last May 2011, Governor Ibikunle Amosun promised the people of Ogun that his administration would give attention to the challenges of wresting Abeokuta from infrastructural decay, flooding and erosion identified as the loudest sources of misery to the inhabitants of the city.

    He restated his resolve to ensure a holistic implementation of the Abeokuta masterplan, reputed to be one of the most badly mauled plans in the country. He was shocked that the residents of the city, who complained about the menace of flooding and erosion had constructed structures, kiosks and containers to block the natural drains constructed by the founders of the city. During one of the visits, the governor promised that all illegal structures blocking the drains would be pulled down.

    Although few people believed the governor then, he has commenced a process in earnest to remove the shameful scar of rot from the city. He has also taken some practical steps to fulfill his promise to recreate the exploits of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State in Ogun. He seems to be drawing his inspiration from transforming effect of creative governance in Lagos as shown by the conversion of Oshodi from a centre of filth and crime to a welcoming centre.

    In the past 10 months, Abeokuta residents have witnessed the noticeable impacts of governmental presence.

    For the first time in Abeokuta, several people who had exploited the weakness of previous administrations to encroach on the right of way including the commercial Bank in the city, got the message and decided to embark on the expected corrective step of vacating the area and relocated. Those illegal structures built without government approval were sealed off by the State special Task Force on Bureau of Urban and Physical Planning (BUPP) under the programmes “Build Right.”

    Across the city, landlords of such structures deemed illegal by the government have taken the initiative to embark on the demolition themselves. Those who have certificate of occupancy got their compensation from the state government for the demolitions. Even as the exercise continues a good number of roads, especially the major ones and streets would be stripped off in due course for roads reconstructions and expansions.

    With the first phase of demolition and the additional space added to the major roads like, Sokori/Ita-Eko/Totoro road and others, Abeokuta is like a bride waiting to be decked in colors of gold when the contractors complete the work at the site at the end of the rainy season.

     

    • Ademola Orunbon

    Abeokuta, Ogun State