Historical Development: Rivers State was created on May 27, 1967 by a military Decree and by 1996; Bayelsa State was carved out of it. However, agitation for the creation of Rivers State predated Nigeria’s Independence from Britain in 1960. During the Colonial period, Britain signed many treaties of protection with the chiefs of many coastal communities. Some of these chiefs had hoped that with Nigeria’s independence, the treaties of protection they signed with Britain would also lapse and thus, they would become independent states. The 1958 constitutional conference which affirmed Nigerian nationhood dashed such hope, but agreed on some measures to allay the fears of the ethnic minorities in this area. Between 1941 and 1952, an organization known as the ljo Rivers People’s League had agitated for the creation of a distinct Rivers Province. In 1953, another body called the Council of Rivers Chiefs replaced the League and became the Rivers Chiefs and Peoples’ Congress in 1954, and the Rivers Chiefs Peoples Conference in 1956. The leaders of this organization cooperated with the Calabar Ogoja Rivers (COR) State Movement formed in Uyo in December 1953, but later broke away to press their own case before the Willink Commission. To allay the fears of the minorities under the dominant ethnic groups within the Nigerian nationhood, the British made one important concession by setting up a Commission headed by Sir Henry Willink to look into the misgivings of the ethnic minorities. The Willink Commission recommended the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) to address the problem of underdevelopment of the area. NDDB did not meet the aspirations of the people and thus, some people attempted to take the extralegal route to achieve their goal. In February 1966, Isaac Boro, Sam Owonaro and Nottingham Dick with their supporters proclaimed a “Delta Peoples Republic.” Federal and Eastern Nigeria Governments brought this rebellion to an abrupt end. On May 27, 1967, Rivers State was among the twelve States created by the Gowon Regime (Salawu, 1993). The cries of political marginalization, environmental degradation and economic pauperization continued among the ljaws, such that the Old ljaw province was carved out of Rivers State as a distinct Bayelsa State in 1996 by the Abacha led military government of Nigeria.

Administrative Areas:  As at 1967 when Rivers State was created, there were fifteen Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the State and when Bayelsa State was carved out in 1996, additional LGAs were created such that the present Rivers State is made up of twenty three LGAs. The State has many communities that organize community development efforts aimed at mobilizing the local resources and assisting the State government in the maintenance of law and order.

Administrative Structure:  There are three arms of government in Rivers State and these are: The Executive Council; The Legislature; and The Judiciary. The State Executive Council is made up of the Governor, the Deputy Governor, and twelve com missioners, special advisers and the Secretary to the State government. The commissioners are the overall heads of the ministries, while the permanent secretaries oversee the day-to-day activities of the same ministries. The parastatals are organs of the government charged for the establishment and running of certain key economic areas of the State government. They are placed either under the supervision of the Governor or the Deputy Governor. The special advisers are assigned responsibilities in the following areas to enhance productivity and accountability: education, information, hotels and tourism et cetera. The Rivers State House of Assembly is the legislative (lawmaking) arm of the government. The twenty three member House of Assembly was inaugurated in June 1999, with the Speaker of the House as chairman in all the proceedings. The judiciary is the body that interprets the law in the State. It is headed by the State Chief Justice. The second tier of government is the local government administration. This is the grassroots government that is closest to the people of the State. There are twenty-three local government councils and each is run by its executive council and legislature.

PHYSICAL SETTING Geology:  Rivers State lies on the recent coastal plain of the eastern Niger Delta. Its surface geology consists of fluvial sediments. This includes the recent sediments transported by Niger River distributaries and other rivers, such as Andoni, Bonny and New Calabar. These materials deposited as regolith overburden of 30m thickness are clays, peat, silts, sands and gravels. The depositional sequence exhibits massive continental sand stones overlying an alternation of sandstones and clays of marginally marine origin, but eventually grading downwards into marine clays. Sands, by far, form the largest group of rock types in Rivers State, while mud constitutes all the polluted brackish waters of the riverine areas. However, peat constitutes the various vegetal and animal remains that lie in bogs and shallow pits. The gravel and pebbles form the last unit of the subsurface rock type, and are usually found at the base of the river channels.

Relief:  The land surface or Rivers State can be grouped into three main divisions: the fresh water, the mangrove swamps of AkukuToru, Abualdual, Asari Toru, Degema, Okrika, Ogu Bolo, Bonny, Andoni and Opobo Local Government Areas; and the Coastal Sand ridges zone. The freshwater zone is the plain that extends north wards from the mangrove swamps. This land surface is generally less than 20m above sea level. This lower Niger floodplain has a greater silt and clay foundation and is more susceptible to perennial inundation by river floods. The value of the mean thickness appreciates upward to about 45 m in the northeast and over 9m in the beach ridge barrier zones to the southwest. The flood plain is a geomorphic structure whose trends west wards and southwards are broken in many places by small hogback ridges and shallow swamp basins (Aisuebeogun, 1995). The southern part is affected by great tidal influence.

Most water channels in the freshwater zone are bordered by natural levees, which are of great topographical interest and of great economic importance to the local people for settlements and crop cultivation. The upland is undulating to the hinterland and attains a maximum height of 30m above sea level at Okubie, to the southwest. The narrow strip of sandy ridges and beach ridges lie very close to the open sea.

The soils of the sandy ridges are mostly sandy or sandy loams and supports crops like coconut, oil palm, raffia palm and cocoyam. Fourteen of the twenty three LGAs of the State are located on the upland with varying heights between thirteen to 45m above sea level. These include Ogoni, lkwerre LGAs, Ahoada, Abual/Odual, 0gba/ Egbema/Ndoni LGAs and Port Harcourt LGAs. The drier upland area of Rivers State covers about sixty one percent while riverine area, with a relief range of 2m to 5m, covers about thirty nine per cent of the State. The entire topography of the State is also characterized by a maze of effluents, rivers, lakes, creeks, lagoons and swamps crisscrossing the low lying plains in varying dimensions.

Drainage:  Drainage is poor, being low lying, with much surface water and a high rainfall, of between 3,420 mm and 7,300 mm. Thus, almost all riverine LGAs are under water at one time of the year or another. Again, some areas of the State are tidally flooded, while others are seasonally, thus limiting agricultural practices and nucleated/urban settlement development that would have enhanced social welfare facility provision. The State is drained by two main river systems, i.e. freshwater systems whose waters originate either outside or wholly within the coastal lowlands, and tidal systems confined largely to the lower half of the State. Drainage densities of rivers within the state have typical value of 1.5 km and sinuosity ratios are in excess of 1.9, indicating that the meandering channels are tortuous. These systems have a general downstream increase in width and velocity, especially in the freshwater zones. The State is drained by the Bonny New Calabar river systems and by a maze of effluent creeks and streams. River bank levees are prominent and valley side slopes are very gentle and experience a great deal of erosion and accretion. All the rivers enter into the sea through wide estuaries.

Soils: There are three major soil groups in Rivers State, namely: the marine and fluvial marine sediments; the mangrove swamp alluvial soils; and freshwater brown loams and sandy loams. The marine and fluvial marine sediments are found in the wet coastal region. The soils are organic in nature and essentially sandy in texture. Some consist of mud mixed with decayed organic matter. The mangrove swamp alluvial soils are found in the northern part of the coastal sediments zone. They are brownish on the surface, sometimes with an unpleasant and offensive odour. The soils of the swamps are rich in organic matter in the top layer, but contain too much salt especially in the dry season.

The third soil group, the brown loams and sandy loams are found in the fresh water zone of the delta. The levees which form the common land forms of this zone are made up of rich loams at their crests, changing to more acidic and more clayed soils along their slopes.

Climate: Rainfall in Rivers State is seasonal, variable, and heavy. Generally, south of latitude 05°N, rain occurs, on the average, every month of the year, but with varying duration. The State is characterized by high rainfall, which decreases from south to north. Total annual rainfall decreases from about 4,700 mm on the coast to about 1,700 mm in extreme north of the State. It is 4,698 mm at Bonny along the coast and 1,862 mm at Degema. Rainfall is adequate for all year round crop production in the State. The duration of the wet season is not less than 330 days, of which a great number is rainy days (days with 250 mm or more of rain). For Port Harcourt, the rainy days are about 182. Mean maximum monthly temperatures range from 28°C to 33°C, while the mean minimum monthly temperatures are in the range of 17°C to 24°C. The mean monthly temperature is in the range of 25°C to 28°C. The mean annual temperature for the State is 26°C. The hottest months are February to May. The difference between the dry season and wet season temperatures is only about 2°C. Relative humidity is high in the State throughout the year and decreases slightly in the dry season (Salawu 1993).

Vegetation:  The “upland” area was originally occupied by rainforest which has been drastically modified by human activities. In most places, economic trees, particularly oil palm, have been preserved and thus the sobriquet for this vegetation as “oil palm bush.” The riverine area is divisible into three main hydro vegetation zones namely, the beach ridge zone, the saltwater zone and the freshwater zone. The beach ridge zone is vegetated mainly by fresh water swamp trees, palms and shrubs on the sandy ridges and mangroves in the intervening valleys or tidal flats. The saltwater zone is the tidal flat or swamps vegetated by the red stilts rooted mangrove (Flhizophora racemosa) and two other species of mangrove. The outliers of raised alluvial ground or coastal plain terrace within the swamps are vege tated by tall forest tree species and oil palm. The freshwater zone is mainly the Upper and Lower Delta flood plains of the Niger, having fresh water forest trees which are the edaphic variants of the rainforest. The Abura tree, oil palm, raffia palm, shrubs, lianas, ferns and floating grasses and reeds are the typical vegetation. Ecological Problems: Deforestation is among the ecological problems confronting the State, as mass deforestation of both mangrove and rain forest is extensive. In fact, in some parts of the State, derived Savannah exists. Rivers State is a State of physical difficulties, such as low lying terrain riddled with an intricate system of natural water channels; too much surface water and a high rainfall; uninhabitable mangrove swamps and some parts of the state suffer from inaccessibility. The character of Rivers State relief, drainage and geology poses much problem to resource exploitation and economic development. Other ecological problems include severe beach erosion associated with sea level rise due to global climatic change; annual inundation by river floods; salty soils especially in the dry season; too much leaching of soil fertility due to excessive rainfall; and susceptibility of settle merit sites along the creeks to creek erosion. Oil spills and gas flares with associated thermal, air, water surface and aquifer pollution, caused by oil exploration and production, are taking a toll on the agricultural output of the land, fisheries, vegetation and wildlife.

PEOPLE, POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT Ethnic Composition, Languages, Culture and the Arts: The ethnic composition of Rivers State is very diverse. These include Kalahari, lkwerre, Okrika, lbani (Bonny and Opobo) Ekpeye, Ogba, Etche, Khana, Gokana, Eleme, Ndoni, Abua, Odual. Linguistic scholars have grouped these communities into six major linguistic groups, namely ljoid, lower Niger (lgboid), Ogoni, Central Delta, Delta Edoid, and Lower Cross. The ljoid group comprises four groups of dialects namely eastern ljoid (Kalahari, Bile, Okrika, lbani and Nkoro). The Lower Niger (lgboid) comprises dialects such as Ekpeye, lkwerre, Ogba, Egbema, Ndoni, Etche, and lgbo. The Ogoni group includes a large number of dialects which can be grouped into four Khana, Gokana, Eleme and Ogoi. The Lower Cross group has only one member in Rivers State, with the rest being in Akwa lbom and Cross River States. The language, Obolo, in this group, is spoken in Andoni and Opobo Local Government Areas (Salawu, 1993). Rivers State, with its diverse ethnic and linguistic groups, is very rich in culture and the arts. Several cultural bonds exist, particularly in music, dances, plays and masquerades. Literature in Rivers State consists of the oral tradition of folk tales, legends, myths, proverbs, riddles and poetry in religious incantations, and so on. More modem literature includes the novels and poetry of writers like Elechi Amadi, Gabriel Okara and the late Ken Saro wiwa. Production of traditional fired clay and bronze are also common. Population Size and Distribution: The population of Rivers State is 3,187,864 (Nigeria, 1991) with 51.9 per cent of the population being males and 1,532,217 or 48.1 per cent being females. Rivers State thus account for 3.58 percent of Nigeria’s population. The population of Rivers State is unevenly distributed among LGAs, towns and villages, such that ecological and physical conditions underscore the observed population distribution pattern. Population density in the State is roughly 284 persons per sq. km and against the national average of ninety six persons per sq. km., therefore the state’s population density is very high. The fact is that because of physical conditions of the state, the limited land area for agricultural practices and constant floods, Rivers State’s population is concentrated in a few towns and the state headquarters (Port Harcourt). The low density of population in the central and western parts (riverine area) is due to the limited dry and safe land area for settlement and agricultural practices. Over fifty six percent of the State’s population is concentrated in eight LGAs and out of which five of them are in the upland region of the State.
Rural/Urban Settlement:  The degree of urbanization in the State is very low and only nineteen out of 1,079 settlements in the State have population above 20,000. Generally, urbanization index is very low (0.24) while the main towns are Port Harcourt, Abonnema, Omoku, Okrika, Oyigbo, Elele, Bonny and Opobo. According to the 1991 population census, the population of these towns constituted 28 per cent of the State population, and therefore the low urbanization index of 0.24. With respect to urban-rural gender composition, Salawu showed that urban population had more males than females while rural population had more females than males. This is a possible reflection of the rural urban migration which is male dominated. The Problem of Urban Primacy: The primacy of Port Harcourt is not in doubt, as that city alone accounts for 14 per cent of the State population and 39 and 21 percent of state owned secondary schools and hospitals, respectively. It has the largest number of private secondary schools and hospitals and controls over 86 per cent of all manufacturing activities in the State. By 1991, the total population of Port Harcourt was 440,399, followed by Buguma (82,865) and Okrika (81,558). Thus, Port Harcourt’s population is five times larger than that of Buguma or Okrika (Nigeria, 1991). The creation of more LGAs, the number of which now stands at twenty three, economic development via industrialization, the neglect of the rural sector and sustained rural urban migration have all accelerated urban growth and development in Rivers State. The number of urban centers with population of 20,000 and above increased from one in 1963 to nineteen in 1991.

SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE Education: The coastal people had early contact with Europeans since the 15th century, but western education was not introduced till 1864, when the first missionary schools were established in Bonny. However, by 1916, primary schools had been established in other parts of the State such as Isiokpo, Omoku, Abua and Okrika. The first secondary school, Bonny High School, was established in 1890 by the Anglican Mission and later became Government College. By 1980, the number of secondary and primary schools was eighty one and 797, respectively. By 1999, the number of government owned primary and secondary schools had increased to 2,805 and 243, respectively. Secondary schools are spatially concentrated in few towns, mostly LGA headquarters and particularly in Port Harcourt. Tertiary institutions in the State include the University of Port Harcourt established by the Federal Government (1975); Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, founded in 1980 by the State government. School of Health Technology, Port Harcourt, established by the State government; two Polytechnic Colleges, one established by the federal government at Omoku and the other by the State government at Bori; State College of Education at Rurnuolumeni, Nkpolu Oroworukwo and Ndele; and School of Nursing and Midwifery at Rumueme, Port Harcourt. There are numerous satellite campuses of the Universities of Lagos, Benin, Calabar, Nsukka, and other vocational educational institutions.

Health Facilities:  In each of the twenty three local government headquarters, there is at least one State hospital, while places like Port Harcourt and Ahoada have six and two hospitals, respectively. There are numerous private health centers, in addition to well equipped institutional clinics. According to Salawu, the Rivers State government, in 1980, had 190 healthcare institutions distributed throughout the then seven LGAs as follows: Ahoada LGA (31); Bori LGA (18); Degema LGA (13); lkwerre Etche LGA (41); Bonny LGA (11); Okrika, Tai Eleme LGA (15); and Port Harcourt LGA (21), (Salawu, 1993). These health care institutions include hospitals, maternity centers, and lately primary health centers where curative medical services are offered. Nowadays, emphasis is placed on maximum accessibility of the people to healthcare delivery systems, and on preventive medicine.

Transport and Communications:  The three modes of transportation are road, rail, and inland waterway. Because of the noted ecological problems, intrastate road networks are poorly developed. Riverine areas are not yet linked up with the settlements in the upland areas. Rail and air transportation serve mainly interstate rather than intrastate movements. The difficult terrain of the area imposes a restriction on the rate and extent of transport development and thus large parts of the state still remain isolated or inaccessible. Recently, the State Government had established the Rivers State Transport Corporation (RTC) to facilitate interaction within the State and with other parts of the country. There are many private transport organizations that provide transport services to other big cities in the country. There are only 22km of rail road within Rivers State. Nevertheless, the importance of the railway to the State lies in the services it provides the port of Port Harcourt. The eastern area of the railway system links with Nguru, Kaduna, Jos and Maiduguri, all in the northern parts of the country. Within Rivers State, water transportation is as important as road transportation since about two thirds of the State lies within the Niger Delta. The port of Port Harcourt is the second largest in Nigeria. Port Harcourt has one of the three major international airports in the country. Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, was commissioned in 1978. It covers an area of about forty sq. km. and has facilities to accommodate all types of aircrafts, and serves as the gateway tor aircraft travelling to the outside world.

Tourism and Recreation:  Rivers State is very rich in tourist attractions. With its long expanses of beautiful coastal sandy beaches stretching from Opobo through Brass to Koluama, numerous long and winding creeks, streams, and rivers as well as forests with their associated shrines and wildlife, the tourism potential of Rivers State is yet to be fully tapped. As a major theatre in the slave traffic and palm oil trade of the mid nineteenth and early twentieth century’s, it is endowed with war relics, artefacts and historical monuments. Today, the State is the centre of the petroleum industry in the country and the home of several other modern industrial establishments. Rivers State culture is rich in festivals, ceremonies; dances, music and crafts, and these are as varied and diverse as the people whose hospitality has become legendary. The rich culture of the State, which is rooted in its unique environment of lakes, creeks, rivers, forests and swamps, provides the hallmark of its tourism development. Since the establishment of the Tourism and Hotels Corporation in 1970, the Rivers State Government has embarked upon several tourism projects. Notable among these are the Isaka Holiday Resort on a twenty three hectare island, about one nautical mile from Port Harcourt, the zoo in Trans Amadi and the Isaac Boro Leisure Park along Aba Road in Port Harcourt. Other projects include the renovation of the Jubilee Park in the Old Township and the establishment of a museum in the Secretariat Complex. These projects have been developed as a social service with the aim of providing facilities for sightseeing and recreation for residents of the State and those visiting.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT Rivers State has tremendous natural resource potentials, but a sizeable proportion of these has never been quantified or exploited. Given the abundant arable land in the upland area of the State and adequate rainfall, the potential for crop production is very substantial.

Agriculture, Forestry and Other basic Activities: An overwhelming majority of the people of Rivers State are involved in two primary activities: farming and fishing. A sample survey conducted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources found that about forty per cent of the rural dwellers were involved in farming in 1983. The main root crops are yam, cassava and cocoyam; while the grains are maize, lowland rice and beans. Other crops grown for food include vegetables, melon, pineapples and plantain. The major cash crops are oil palm products, rubber, coconut, raffia palm and jute. Rivers State is traditionally a fishing area and the principal occupation of the riverine people is fishing and its associated industries. About 270 species of fish have been identified in this area.

The fishing population is almost exclusively dominated by artisanal fishermen. The State also provides such valuable sea foods as crabs, oysters, shrimps and fishes, as well as mammals and birds. Land use analysis reveals clearly that only a very small portion of cultivable land is presently used for crop production. This amount is estimated at about 1,060,162 ha or 54.6 per cent of arable land, consisting of all the upland area and a large portion of the Upper/Lower Delta Plains. Land use categories include cropland, plantations, forest reserves, swamps, wooded areas and built up areas.

 The dominant land use category is the swamps (fresh water and saltwater tidal swamps) that are only very thinly cultivated in patches in few places. They occupy about 40 per cent of the land. They are used as fishing areas. Cropland forms a relatively large area estimated at about 60 per cent of the State’s land area. Of this amount, only about 80,000 ha or about 4 per cent of the State’s land area is cultivated annually, the rest being fallow. The intensity of use of cropland is very low in most areas. The portion of the State land that is cultivated at greater than 50 per cent intensity is the southeast and eastern upland areas of the coastal Plantations of rubber and oil palm, developed either by government or individuals are, however, common in the northern and eastern parts of the if State. They constitute about 0.5 per cent of the land area.

Forest reserves are distributed throughout the State but they are more common in the north western part of the State. Wooded areas are commonly the freshwater upper delta floodplain and isolated preserved natural forests. Built up areas constitute about 0.3 per cent of land area and are the villages and major towns, which are concentrated more on the well drained terrace uplands, the largest of which is Port Harcourt. Mineral Resources: Rivers State is rich in crude oil production. An enormous amount of Nigeria’s oil wealth is derived from Rivers State. The first commercial discovery of crude oil was at Oloibiri in Bayelsa State in 1956. This success was followed by the discovery of other wells at Afam in 1957, and the Ebubu and Bomu in 1958, all in present day Rivers State. Thus, the State has become firmly established as one of the major oil producing centers in the nation. By 1983, Nigeria’s oil output was 450,974,545 barrels gross, of which 44.3 percent came from wells in the then Rivers State before Bayelsa was created out of it. The area’s , contribution to the overall oil revenue in the country for 1982 and 1983 stood at N2,684.99 billion and N1,676.06 billion respectively, representing 47 and 41.5 per cent of total revenue for the country. Rivers State now produces oil from 416 wells, out of the 1201 wells in the country. Associated with oil exploitation and exploration is the potential for gas production. Local Sourcing of Raw Materials: Rivers State is second to Lagos in respect of industrial development. The natural resource potentials of the state include wide ranging agricultural and industrial mineral products, from which raw materials can be sourced for the establishment of low, medium and large scale industries. Agricultural raw materials for agro allied industries include rubber, oil palm, palm kernel, cassava, vegetables, rubber, timber, rope etc. Raw materials for medium to large scale industries include petrochemicals such as carbon black and polypropylene, petroleum, natural gas, bitumen, and a host of others.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES Rivers State produces strategic minerals (especially crude oil and gas) and other agricultural products which can all be mobilized for the State’s economic growth and development. The present State government and the Federal Government, in their planning and development policies, both aim at pursuing a vigorous diversification of the Nigerian economy. To this extent, the State government has created an enabling economic environment that attracts local and international entrepreneurs to the State. Firstly, the State maintains social and political peace among indigenous and non-indigenous elements residing in the State through regular dialogue between the government on one hand, and the indigenous and non indigenous population residing in the State on the other. Secondly, the State has created the Ministry of Energy Resources charged with responsibility for providing electricity in all villages and towns of the state. Thirdly, the provision of 1,000 housing units in Port Harcourt within the first six months of the present state administration portends well for accelerated development in the State. In addition to all these, the State government has embarked on the construction of roads and bridges to link Port Harcourt with the suburban towns and villages so that transportation will be facilitated. Intra city roads are being reconstructed, while the Federal Government has started the construction of the Bolo Bonny and Emuoha Kalahari long bridges over swamps. The construction of these two bridges will open the riverine areas for economic and industrial growth and development. In addition to the Trans Amadi Industrial Layout, the State government has started construction of a new industrial estate at Ahoada, so as to decongest Port Harcourt and transmit development impulses to the neighborhood towns and villages. Other incentives to investors and developers include tax holidays, tax relief, provision of uninterrupted portable water supply, and pioneer status scheme for newly established industries in order to survive the initial capital outlay and other related problems. With large scale industries, such as oil refineries, petrochemical, fertilizer and liquefied natural gas, manufacturing companies and other oil service industries in the state, industrial and economic development of the State have a very bright future.

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