Bonny, Rivers


Bonny is an island town and a Local Government Area in Rivers State in southern Nigeria, on the Bight of Bonny. It is also the capital of the Kingdom of Bonny. Traditionally it was a major trading post of the eastern delta. Bonny Island is a major export point for oil.
The region produces a type of crude oil known as Bonny Light oil. Much of the oil extracted onshore in Rivers State is piped to Bonny for export. It has the biggest LNG Gas Plant in Nigeria with six trains.

Kingdom of Bonny

The Kingdom of Bonny was a sovereign state in the Niger Delta.
The kingdom, comprising virgin lands and territorial areas, was founded before or about AD 1400. The founding group of the kingdom, who originated within the Isedani lineage of Kolokuma in the Ebeni-toru region, was led by four direct descendants of Ebeni. These were Ndoli, Opuamakuba, Alagbariye and Asimini. From these leaders and the entire founding generation of the kingdom evolved the lineage/ward/house system of governance that is currently used to administer the state. The“Amanyanabo”, or monarch, presided over a chieftaincy system composed of the "Ase-Alapu" and the “Amadapu”.
The four descendants of Ebeni became monarchs of the kingdom in turn, and are remembered today as its founding fathers. After their deaths, their own descendants ruled the kingdom as kings until the reign of King Awusa in the early modern era. It was after King Awusa Halliday, the twelfth king of the Bonny kingdom, that King Perekule I succeeded to the kingship. Since his reign, King Perekule's direct descendants have served as successors to the throne established by the founding generation of Bonny.
The Kingdom of Bonny was powerful beginning in the 15th century with the advent of the Portuguese and the following Atlantic slave trade. In the 19th century, it came under increasing pressure from the British to end the trade. It collapsed in the subsequent Bonny civil war of 1869.. A remnant of it continues to exist as a part of the contemporary aristocratic structure of Nigeria. the people of Bonny are still in existence and the town is still occupy with people of different tribes.