As the world continues to pour into Nigeria every December, one city in the South-South keeps missing a rare and powerful opportunity.
Port Harcourt has everything it needs to become a major Detty December destination, culture, food, music, nightlife, talent, and history. What it lacks is coordination, timing, and strategic intent.
Detty December is no longer a Lagos-only affair or so it should be. It is now a national cultural migration, drawing Nigerians in the diaspora, Africans, creatives, investors, and tourists from across the world. Flights are full. Hotels are booked. Attention is global.
This is precisely the moment Rivers State must lean in, not sit out.
The Bole Festival is already halfway there, one of the most authentic cultural assets in Rivers State. Food is culture, and culture travels well. The festival already has brand recognition, diaspora appeal, and strong local loyalty.
What it needs is strategic repositioning, instead of being treated as a standalone local event, Bole Festival should be deliberately scheduled within the Detty December window, positioned as a must-attend South-South cultural experience for visitors already flying into Nigeria.
Imagine this clearly, diaspora visitors land in Lagos for concerts, they move on to Port Harcourt for food, culture, waterfront leisure, and a slower but richer experience, bole Festival becomes the cultural anchor, not just a food event, but a multi-day experience blending music, storytelling, tourism, nightlife, and business.
This is how festivals scale. Not by shouting louder, but by plugging into existing global traffic.
Reviving CARNIRIV for a global audience, and it should not remain a nostalgic memory. In a time when the world is actively searching for African cultural experiences, letting CARNIRIV stay dormant is a missed economic opportunity.
Revived and repositioned within the Detty December season, CARNIRIV can attract international cultural tourists, reintroduce Rivers State to the global festival circuit, create large-scale employment across logistics, security, costumes, media, hospitality, and performance, and tell a strong Niger Delta story to the world.
This is not about copying Rio or Notting Hill. It is about telling Rivers State’s story with confidence and structure, when global attention is already available.
This is bigger than festivals because when festivals are strategically timed and properly supported, the ripple effects are enormous, music and entertainment benefit through concerts, showcases, and collaborations, film and media benefit through screenings, premieres, content creation, and global exposure, food and nightlife thrive with increased traffic and spending, hospitality sees higher occupancy, longer stays, and better pricing power, real estate benefits from short-let demand, property visibility, and diaspora interest, and transportation, vendors, creatives, and service providers all earn.
This is how cities build tourism economies, not overnight, but through repetition and consistency, and the Rivers State Government must act now as this is where leadership matters the most
The Rivers State Government, through its tourism and culture ministries, must stop seeing festivals as isolated events and start treating them as economic infrastructure.
That means fixing and publishing a December cultural calendar, supporting festival organizers with logistics, security, and approvals, marketing Rivers State intentionally to the diaspora and international audience, partnering with airlines, hotels, and media platforms, and encouraging private sector sponsorship and investment.
Detty December already generates over ₦100 billion in a single month for the Lagos State economy, driven by tourism, hospitality, entertainment, and consumer spending. That figure alone should force a national conversation. Because if one city can unlock that level of economic activity in just four weeks, the real question is not whether the model works, but how much more value can be created when it is expanded beyond Lagos.
For Rivers State, the opportunity is enormous. By deliberately positioning Port Harcourt within the Detty December circuit, the state can unlock new streams of revenue, create thousands of jobs, and activate its youthful population across multiple sectors. The impact would go far beyond hotels and nightlife. It would extend into the arts and culture ecosystem, music and film production, food and culinary tourism, logistics, transportation, media, fashion, real estate, and small-scale entrepreneurship.
A structured December tourism strategy would mean more hotel bookings, higher short‑let occupancy, increased restaurant traffic, expanded nightlife activity, and stronger demand for event production, security, creatives, and service providers. For young people, it represents access to seasonal and repeat employment, new business opportunities, and global exposure. For the state, it translates into increased internally generated revenue, stronger city branding, and long‑term tourism growth.
If Lagos can generate over ₦100 billion in one month by owning December, Rivers State stands to gain significantly by tapping into that same wave, not by competing blindly, but by complementing it with culture, leisure, and authentic experiences that only the South‑South can offer.
Detty December has already proven that culture is not just entertainment. It is an economic engine. Rivers State only needs the strategy and the will to plug into it.
Planning must start now, not in November. Detty December is getting bigger, more competitive, and more valuable every year. Cities that prepare early will win. Cities that hesitate will watch others take their place.
Port Harcourt can no longer afford silence, Lagos has proven the model. Abuja is positioning itself. Other African cities are paying attention.
If Rivers State acts decisively, Port Harcourt can become the South-South’s cultural and leisure capital during December, a destination people intentionally plan for, not stumble upon.
This is not just about fun, it is about jobs, revenue, global relevance, and pride.
Detty December is no longer optional. It is an open invitation and the only question is whether Port Harcourt will finally RSVP.
The author Oséyómón Ighódálóh is a creative entrepreneur and CEO of bamboo group limited, dedicated to Africa’s development through innovation and business development. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria. Oseyomonighodaloh@gmail.com
