Digging into the past to transform the present.
The Bonny Consulate Building is a commemorative 20:30 anniversary project by NLNG for Bonny community.
The crucial pride of place of Bonny in today’s Nigeria is not a fluke. It goes way back to the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century when she became a major trading post of the Eastern Delta and gateway to international trade. Its natural deep-water port was responsible for the major role she played in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and later in palm oil, ivory and timber trades.
Bonny also served as the entry port of Christianity in the Niger Delta through the pioneer work of the first black African bishop, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther who arrived at Bonny in 1864. Today, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Cathedral of Bishop Ajayi Crowther, which was consecrated on January 24, 1889, remains a testament to his work.
Bonny is the first seat of British colonial administration. A consulate was built in 1897 from where the British administered and managed their relationship with the outlying colonial areas. The consulate housed the district commissioner, a doctor, police officers, several offices for the Marine Department.
Under the Colonial Township Ordinance of 1917, Bonny was designated a township in 1917.
Today, Bonny Kingdom is of immense significance in Nigeria’ economic life. The kingdom is host to three major oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Nigeria LNG which operates a 6-train LNG plant producing 22 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas, Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) which operates it onshore fractionation and storage facilities at Bonny River Terminal (BRT); and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) which exports crude oil from its Bonny Crude Oil Terminal (BCOT) from where about 30 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil is exported. The sheer volume of investments in Bonny Island is put at about USD30 billion.
Courtesy of the oil and gas companies on the island, Bonny is one of the most developed communities in the Niger Delta with a modern road network, potable water, and is perhaps the only in Nigeria with 99 per cent electric power availability.
The Bonny Dubai Vision
The ‘Bonny-Dubai Vision’ seeks to upscale the prominence of Bonny and make it a major investment destination, diversify its economy from reliance on oil and gas to other areas such as tourism, especially with its rich tourism potentials and history, create a strong infrastructural base and improve the quality of life of its people. This is expected to be powered by the Nigeria LNG in partnership with Bonny Kingdom and other willing partners. Several game-changing initiatives are being introduced in line with this vision.
The Bonny Consulate Building
One of these initiatives is to transform the Kingdom into a major tourism destination comparable to such other destinations across the world. A major part of this initiative is the reconstruction of the old Bonny Consulate Building. The choice of the Consulate Building is not by accident. The old Consulate Building is, naturally, a colonial style three storey building that was decorated with metal railings on roofs and had two exterior staircases in front of the building.
Bonny Consulate Building will:
• Serve as a hub for the Tourism Initiative in Bonny Kingdom which is expected to constitute a huge revenue earner for Bonny Kingdom.
• Recreate a structure with its rich history and significance not only in Bonny but in Nigeria.
• Serve as one-stop shop for exploring the rich history of Bonny Kingdom.
The new Bonny Consulate Building has been conceived as an iconic structure that will be carefully choreographed to replicate the old Consulate Building with its rich history and significance. It is essentially the recreation of history by present Bonny men and women – on their own terms. To walk into the new Bonny Consulate Building is to induce a hallowed state in which one is in a suspended space between the historic past and the timeless historic present; it is to lose oneself in the original ‘look and feel’ of the old Consulate and yet to be unobtrusively aware of the rich luxuries of the 21st century engineered by the Bonny-Dubai Vision.
FEATURES
• Land area of circa 10,000m2
• Provision of space for Bonny FM Radio Station
• Office of the King of Bonny
• Staff Offices
• Movie Hall
• Conference Room/Hall
• Souvenir Shop
• Library
• Museum
• Café
• Security House
• Car Park Area
The new Bonny Consulate Building has the potential to propel the growth of tourism on the island. Indeed, Bonny Consulate Building, which was the centre of administrative power in the past, is expected to serve as the hub of the tourism initiative in the present.
As published in Vol. 5, No1 – 2019 of the NLNG: The Magazine (Special Anniversary Edition)
Happy birthday my beloved sister I pray God will continue to guide and protect you.
Love you remain blessed.