Post 34: Port Harcourt, Bandit Country

Principe, Sao Tome to Port Harcourt, Nigeria

204 nautical miles

1 hour 37 minutes flying time



Niger Delta rebels. Courtesy of Der Spiegel magazine. Many
press photographers have died bringing us images like these.
I have worked with some. And I salute their courage.

David Cairns, a very close friend and one of the great British press photographers of the 60s and 70s sent me this email yesterday  He was covering the vicious Biafran civil war in Nigeria.in the mid-1960s

" There was a Saturday in 1967 when Terry Fincher ( one of the greats with whom Slowflyer covered part of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war) was at one side of Port Harcourt Airport with the Nigeria Forces and I was with the Biafran Army, on the far side of the runway. The Biafrans had recently lost the airfield which was the only lifeline into the newly declared State and they were fighting hard to retake it. We did not find out about the fall of Port Harcourt Airport until we were well down the Coast of West Africa in an ancient Elizabethan aircraft ( Triple tailed?) which was packed with 105mm mortar shells and the rest. This flew from Lisbon to Sao Tome by a mercenary crew, four of us packed in the back. We flew very low over a moonlit Delta and into the new Biafra.

The ingenious Biafrans had found a longish straight bit of road in the middle of the jungle way north of Port Harcourt and had cut the jungle either side, both  widening and strengthening the road. As we descended into what seemed like impenetrable moonlit  jungle, a series of oil drums were suddenly lit all at once and very smoky runway lights appeared below at the very last minute!

We landed safely.  And walked into the war. It's still about oil.!"

Port Harcourt is bandit country. It lies in the Niger River delta, at the heart of Nigeria’s vast oil reserves. Enormous wealth; great poverty; corruption; a booming kidnapping industry; political unrest; ethnic rivalry; frequent attacks on western oil companies; ordinary people, good people who can't understand why one of the biggest oil producers in the world can't provide for their basic needs (Answer: corruption)  struggle to survive. This is a fertile breeding ground for extremism. And more corruption. Virtually every western government strongly advises against travel to the delta. The Foreign Office says  “ If you’re there. Get out” I’m not sure what we’re doing here.

We leave the beautiful island of Principe for the 200 nautical sea crossing between a morning thunderstorm and a cyclone moving in tomorrow. Alpha Charlie flies low, 1300 feet on the QNH. We pick up a good tailwind and for much of the flight we clip along at over 130kts. On a short stretch we touch 139kts. That’s nearly 260 kilometres an hour which is not bad for an Archer. Higher up at 4,500 and 6,500 feet some of the others have a strong headwind. Alpha Charlie eats up the miles. Which is comforting because we’re over the sea virtually all the way in the stormy Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). As we approach the Niger delta we see oil tankers, rigs and gas flares.

We get to Port Harcourt airspace with a good hour to spare before sunset. It turns out to be a much busier than I’d imagined. Port Harcourt Approach (a little fazed by all these small aircraft arriving at once) helpfully vectors us to the field on an IFR approach, holding off impatient commercial traffic.



M. Passepartout and Alpha Charlie at busy, busy
Port Harcourt airport. 

It takes longer to clear immigration than it takes us to fly here. But the Nigerians are friendly. By the time we leave airside it’s dark. We pass through the airport gates, in single file, and get into a minibus with a smart, armed guard from the Nigerian Police Force, toting an AK47 short-stock automatic or something that looks it. His name is Nichodemus Ibrahim.



Annette with Sgt AK47 of Nigeria's finest

 Port Harcourt is surreal. Mad Max meets the Keystone Cops. In Africa. Religion is big here. There are churches to suit every taste. On the way we pass, in turn, the Laborarory Church of The Lord, the Reign Supreme Church min-van and The Supernatural Congregation of God. Slogan: “ Experience the Supernatural”

A bit further on a huge billboard says: Infections, 100% cure guaranteed. Call Daddy Bliss. Nigeria has the third largest HIV population on the planet. The outskirts are one big, building site. Arklights illuminate huge diggers. "VIPs" preceded by cars with flashing lights head for the airport. Armed checkpoints. Roundabouts and intersections are bull rings. Kidnapping is the least of  our worries. 

Our driver, who initially drives at a suicidal speed, but is skillfully encouraged to slow down by Flying Farmer's wife, Annette, weaves through bustling back lanes as we enter the city. They are alive with the street life of Africa. He eventually swings into the aptly named Psychiatric Road before depositing us at the “Marriot Bay” hotel, a counterfeit version and certainly not the real thing.

Tomorrow we head further north to the predominantly Muslim city of Kano, northern Nigeria. The country, a former British colony, is basically divided between the Muslim north and the Christian south. It is the invention of men in suits who, in the 19th and and 20th century created this giant by drawing random lines on a map. It's a potentially powerful country whose DNA is perhaps seriously flawed by a toxic mix of ethnic and religious rivalry.