Rivers
Nigeria's oil capital where Port Harcourt produces 40%+ of national petroleum while the Ogoni and Ijaw endure five decades of environmental devastation.
Rivers State exists because oil made the delta too valuable for any single state to control. Created on May 27, 1967, the original Rivers encompassed present-day Bayelsa (split off in 1996) and centered on Port Harcourt - founded in 1913 as a coal export port before Shell discovered oil at nearby Oloibiri in 1956. The state now produces over 40% of Nigeria's crude oil and natural gas, making Port Harcourt the commercial capital of the petroleum industry. The Ijaw, Ogoni, Ikwerre, and 20+ other ethnic groups share the Niger Delta's riverine territory. But oil wealth created oil tragedy: environmental degradation from 50+ years of exploitation has scarred the landscape. Ken Saro-Wiwa founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990 to protest pollution and exploitation; his 1995 execution by the Abacha regime made him a global martyr. Isaac Boro's 1966 Delta People's Republic preceded this resistance. Port Harcourt's first oil refinery opened in 1965; at its 1980s peak, 8 of 10 manufacturing industries in the state operated there. Nigeria's second-largest state economy after Lagos, Rivers demonstrates both petroleum wealth and the resource curse's costs. By 2026, whether environmental remediation or continued extraction defines the state will shape its trajectory.