When coal was discovered at Enugu in 1909, nobody could have imagined how profoundly it would change the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Coal became one of the foundations of the region’s early industrialisation. It provided energy, generated commercial activity, created employment, encouraged the construction of railways and helped connect the interior of the region to Port Harcourt. The coal mines at Enugu became so economically important that Enugu eventually became the capital of the Eastern Region in 1938.
By the 1950s, thousands of people were employed in the coal industry, while the railway connecting Enugu through Umuahia and Aba to Port Harcourt moved coal, agricultural produce, people and other goods across the region. Coal therefore did much more than provide fuel. It helped create an economic chain: coal mining encouraged railway development; the railway connected towns and markets; Port Harcourt became an important port for exporting coal and handling international trade; electricity generation expanded; industries grew; workers were employed; towns expanded; and commerce flourished. Port Harcourt became one of the major commercial centres of the Eastern Region, while Enugu became the administrative and industrial centre of the coal economy. The Port Harcourt port was already one of Nigeria’s major ports in the 1950s. But the story of Eastern Region development was bigger than coal alone. The people who turned the region’s resources into development were the political leaders, civil servants, engineers, entrepreneurs, farmers, professionals and ordinary citizens who participated in the regional development programme.
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| Enugu coal mining site in 1949 |
Among the most important political figures was Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara, who served as Premier of Eastern Nigeria from 1959 to 1966. Before becoming Premier, he had already been involved in the region’s Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Production. His administration pursued an aggressive programme of agricultural development, industrialisation, education, healthcare and infrastructure. Under Okpara, the philosophy was not simply to extract resources and consume the proceeds. The objective was to convert the region’s economic resources into productive capacity. Agriculture remained particularly important because the Eastern Region’s economy was still heavily dependent on agriculture. The government established farm settlements, plantations, agricultural estates and other schemes designed to increase production and modernise farming. The region invested in oil palm, rubber, cocoa and other agricultural commodities.
Historical records show that by 1965, tens of thousands of acres had been planted with oil palm, rubber and cocoa as part of the development programme. Industrialisation was pursued at the same time. Nkalagu became home to the Nigerian Cement Company. Aba developed as a major manufacturing and commercial centre, with textile and other industries. Enugu had coal mining and industrial activities, while Emene became associated with gas, asbestos and other industrial development. Onitsha developed important commercial and manufacturing activities. Port Harcourt became an industrial centre with the development of Trans-Amadi Industrial Estate, while tyre and glass manufacturing were established there.
Under Okpara the Eastern Region built:
| Sector | Projects |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | Oil palm, rubber, cocoa estates. 10,000s of acres by 1965 |
| Industry | Nkalagu Cement, Aba Textiles, Port Harcourt Tyres & Glass, Trans-Amadi Estate |
| Infrastructure | Roads, Hotel Presidential, Port expansion |
| Human Capital | Schools, Alvan Ikoku College, Hospitals, Health Centres |
Historical accounts of the period list industries covering cement, textiles, brewing, soap, glass, tyres, asbestos, iron and steel, oil refining and other manufacturing activities across the region. Port Harcourt is particularly important to this story. During the Eastern Region period, the city was not simply an oil city. It was an industrial, commercial and transportation centre. The regional government developed the Trans-Amadi industrial area, expanded the port, encouraged manufacturing and supported the establishment of major industrial ventures. Hotel Presidential was developed in Port Harcourt as part of the region’s hospitality and tourism development, while industrial projects such as the Michelin tyre factory and glass manufacturing formed part of the city’s industrialisation. Enugu also benefited enormously. It was the coal capital and the political headquarters of the region. Coal mining brought workers, businesses, transportation and government institutions into the city.
Oji River became important for electricity generation, with coal supplying the Oji River power station. Nkalagu developed its cement industry. Aba became one of the great commercial and manufacturing centres of the region. Onitsha became a major commercial centre. Calabar developed industries and institutions, while Owerri became associated with ventures such as the shoe industry. These developments were part of a wider regional economic strategy rather than isolated projects.
The Eastern Region also invested heavily in education and human capital. Schools, teacher-training institutions and colleges were expanded because the regional leadership understood that physical development without educated people would not be sustainable. Institutions such as Alvan Ikoku College of Education grew within this period, while primary and secondary education expanded across the region. Healthcare was also developed through hospitals, health centres, maternity facilities and specialist programmes.
In other words, the wealth generated by the regional economy was being converted into both physical infrastructure and human capital. The important lesson is that the Eastern Region was attempting to build an economy in which resources would produce more resources. Coal helped power the early industrial economy; agriculture generated enormous wealth through palm produce, rubber, cocoa and other commodities; trade generated commercial activity; industries created jobs; and the government invested in roads, schools, hospitals, electricity, ports, agriculture and manufacturing.
The Eastern Nigeria Development Plan of 1962–68 reflected this broader strategy, with major investments planned for agriculture and industry. Coal was an important catalyst, but the real achievement was the manner in which the region’s leaders and people tried to connect natural resources to agriculture, industry, education, transportation and human development. The Eastern Regional Development Board, established in 1949, was already providing loans and supporting development activities across different parts of the region, including Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu, Onitsha, Ahoada, Calabar and other communities.
Then, Crude Oil Was Discovered
Oil had actually been discovered and explored in the Eastern Region before independence, and commercial production was achieved in the late 1950s. By the 1960s, petroleum was becoming an increasingly important source of wealth. The irony is that the resource that later became Nigeria’s greatest source of national revenue emerged in many of the same territories that had been economically connected to the Eastern Region. Oil changed the political and economic equation. Coal had helped connect people because everybody needed the railway, the port, the electricity, the industries and the markets created around the developing regional economy. Agricultural produce from different communities moved through the same economic network. People from different ethnic groups worked, traded and lived within the same regional economic system. The resource economy, despite all its imperfections, created economic interdependence. Oil eventually became different. Instead of being viewed primarily as one component of a diversified regional economy, petroleum became the dominant national resource. Political struggles increasingly followed the question of who controlled the oil-producing territories and who received the revenues.
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| Michael Okpara in 1958 |
The discovery of enormous petroleum wealth in the Niger Delta consequently became intertwined with disputes over territory, political power, ownership, revenue allocation and identity. This is where the tragedy of the story lies. A resource that should have brought greater prosperity to everybody became one of the things that helped deepen divisions. Some people began to say, in effect, that they no longer needed the relationship that had existed before because their land possessed oil. Communities that had once participated in the same regional economic system increasingly became divided by arguments over who owned what, who was an indigene, who was an outsider, who deserved the resources and who should control the revenue.
There is therefore a painful irony in the history: coal helped build economic connections, while oil became associated with economic separation and political competition. And the greatest irony is that despite the enormous wealth extracted from the Niger Delta, oil has not automatically transformed every oil-producing community into a modern, industrialised environment. Vast petroleum wealth has flowed out of the region for decades, yet many oil-producing communities have continued to struggle with poor roads, inadequate infrastructure, environmental degradation, unemployment, inadequate public services and underdevelopment. Having oil beneath a people’s land does not automatically produce development. What produces development is the ability to convert resource wealth into infrastructure, education, healthcare, productive industries, human capital and opportunities for the population. That is the lesson that the old Eastern Region’s experience with coal should teach us.
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The people of the Eastern Region did not simply discover coal and become developed overnight. They built institutions, industries, roads, railways, schools, hospitals, farms, ports and businesses around their resources. Leaders such as Michael Okpara provided political direction, while engineers, civil servants, businessmen, farmers, workers and communities supplied the human effort that made the development possible. The region’s development was therefore a collective project. It is also worth remembering that the old Eastern Region was not a perfect society. There were inequalities, political disagreements, ethnic tensions, exploitation and serious conflicts.
The 1949 Iva Valley coal miners’ massacre itself demonstrated the harsh conditions under which many workers lived and worked. Coal therefore did not magically unite everybody. But economically, it created a system in which different communities were connected through production, transportation, trade and regional institutions. The painful question today is why people who once benefited from the economic system created around the resources of the old Eastern Region should now look at one another as enemies because one part of the former region has oil and another part had coal. Resources should not become reasons for hatred. The coal beneath Enugu did not belong to only the miners who dug it. Its economic value became part of a wider regional economy. In the same way, petroleum beneath the Niger Delta should be capable of producing prosperity not only for individual communities but for the wider population through fair arrangements, investment and development. Coal gave the old Eastern Region a common economic project. Oil should have given the same people an even greater opportunity to build a richer and more modern society. Instead, oil became entangled with politics, identity, resource control and division. And that is the tragedy: yesterday, coal helped us build together; today, oil is being used as an argument for why we should no longer belong together.
The people who once travelled on the railways built to move coal, traded through Port Harcourt, worked in the industries of Aba and Enugu, bought goods in Onitsha, participated in agriculture across the region and benefited from the infrastructure of the Eastern Region should not forget that development was strongest when resources were converted into a common economic project. Oil should not make one people mock another. It should not make those who possess petroleum wealth forget the economic relationships that existed before petroleum transformed Nigeria’s politics.
The real measure of a resource is not how much wealth lies beneath the soil, but how much human prosperity is created above it. Coal showed what a resource can do when it becomes part of a common development project. Oil has shown what happens when resource wealth becomes a source of political competition and division. The challenge for today’s generation is to learn from both histories.