Urbanization, Social Change and Criminality in Port Harcourt Metropolis (1999 to Date)

This Study examined the Urbanization, Social Change and Criminality in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria (1999 To Date). Urbanization has been a global phenomenon in the past few centuries, but the lack of proper implementation of the Port Harcourt city's master plan had resulted in the development of slums, ghettos and urban sprawl with the attendant criminality such as armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism, piracy, gangsterism, drug addiction and peddling among others. This study is theoretical in approach which utilized the interpretative or exploratory research design. The Peace and Conflict Heritage Theory of Johan Vincent Galtung and that of Frustration Aggression Theory of Dollard et al, were adopted as the theoretical framework for this study, which aptly analyzed the relationship between urbanization social change and criminality. Data for this study was elicited through secondary research of both published and unpublished materials such as books, journals, magazines, internet etc. and the study utilized content analysis to analyze the qualitative data. Findings from the secondary sources affirmed that urbanization, social change and criminality in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State is as a result of poor implementation of the master plan which led to the formation of these ghettos, shanties or slums which harbor the criminals whose activities often spill over to the metropolis. This trend taints the image of Port Harcourt and Nigeria internationally as the multinational oil companies always use this as an excuse to relocate to Lagos as their operational base instead of Port Harcourt which is closest to their oil rigs, oil wells and flow stations whose coordinates are all located in Rivers State. The study therefore recommends that there should be proper implementation of the Port Harcourt city master plan and the shanties be turned to planned cities with good buildings, electricity, water, good net-work of roads with police posts to check the rising crime rate in Port Harcourt metropolis and its environs.