21.2 HISTORY
Port Harcourt is a colonial foundation and the impetus for its establishment was the need for a deep-water port to serve a railway that would bring coal, discovered at Udi near Enugu in 1909, for export to other parts of Nigeria and West Africa. Moreover in his report on the amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1912, the Governor General, Sir Frederick Lugard, advocated the need to rationalise the exploitation of Nigerian products with a railway and Port to serve the eastern side of the country as a counter balance to the Lagos railhead.
According to Nwonodi:
- ...in December 1912, Lugard... visited the ports along the coast to find a place where there was deep enough water near to firm high ground from which a railway could be built to Udi. ...When his party reached Okrika, they found high ground behind the island, but the depth of water in front... was not sufficient and while investigating this water their canoe ran aground. However as this was the most encouraging area they had seen, on returning to Lagos, Lugard directed Lt. Hughes to proceed to the Okrika area to find a suitable site for the new port and railhead.
- Journeying west of Okrika through Isaka Creek, which was in fact the main channel of the Bonny River, Lt. Hughes' party found a harbour seven miles above Okrika, with water 70 feet deep and cliffs over 40 feet high along the north and east sides. At its narrowest bend the river was 200 feet across...
In May 1913 the colonial administration enforced the Hargrove Agreement (named after the District Commissioner) acquiring approximately 25 square miles of farmland from the local people upon which to develop the town.
The precise boundary of the town was described in the agreement as follows:
- "All the parcel of land bounded on the South by the waterway known as the Primrose Creek or Bonny River for a distance of three and a half miles more or less, on the West for a distance of five and a half miles more or less again by the waterway known as the Primrose Creek or Bonny River, thence in a northerly direction for a distance of one mile eight hundred yards more or less by the west bank of the Creek known as the Ilechi Creek, following the bends of the said creek, to a boundary Post marked "A" at Ilechi Waterside, thence for a distance of one mile one thousand and seventy three yards due north to a boundary post marked "B" on the north by a straight line measuring approximately five miles more or less from the Boundary Post marked "B" in a direction due east to a boundary Post marked "C" on the Creek known as the Woji Creek, on the East by the said Woji Creek for a distance approximately of one and a half miles more or less, thence by the waterway known as the Okrika Creek for a distance of six and a half miles more or less to the southern boundary referred to above containing in all an area of twenty five square miles more or less..."
The new town was named after the British Colonial Secretary of the day, the Right Honourable Lewis Harcourt. Construction started on a temporary wharf at the site of the present harbour (Map 13) towards the end of 1913 so that by the end of 1914 fifteen
