From Blessing Douglas, Port Harcourt
A real estate Investor, Mr My-Ace China, has called on the media to help in changing the negative perception some people have about Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
He said the Ogoni crisis and the militancy era in the Niger Delta, led to capital flight from Port Harcourt because people saw the once beautiful Garden City as an unsafe place to live and do business.
China spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt when the leadership of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State Council, presented him with a letter of partnership for the forthcoming 2023 Correspondents’ Week.
He said: “The first era of Port Harcourt was a beautiful Garden City, between 1960s and 1970s. The second era was 1980s when Ogoni crisis, oil spillages and all that. That negative era and perception continued until the militancy era and everybody saw Port Harcourt as a security threat.
“If I am to quantify the amount of trillion of dollars that exited Port Harcourt in terms of capital flight, due to that perception that Port Harcourt is not secured.
“People still do business here but they don’t live here. If you want to understand, go to the airport on Monday morning and you will the inflow, then, on Fridays, you will see the outflow. Even companies that have facilities here will rather have operational base here and have residential base in Lagos or Abuja.
“So, the third era we want to create is for people to do business and live in Port Harcourt. I was very delighted when the new governor mentioned social housing, housing revolution and Infrastructure consolidation as part of his programmes.
“When I heard about your week, I jumped into the bandwagon because the only people that can change the perception of a people is the media.”
Presenting the letter, Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Amaechi Okonkwo, said as journalists, members of the chapel were ready to work with China, popularly known as ‘Mayor of Housing’ to achieve set goals.
Okonkwo said: “We were excited when we heard that you were ready to receive us today. We wholeheartedly receive and promised to work with you to actualize set goals.”
