Brief History of Bayelsa State

History

Bayelsa State was created on October 1, 1996 out of the old Rivers State by the then regime of General Sani Abacha. The name, Bayelsa, is an acronym of three former Local Government areas Brass, Yenagoa and Sagbama in the then Rivers State, which had earlier on comprised the entire area now constituting Bayelsa State. 

In the tradition in the old Rivers State, which is Bayelsa State was created from, acronyms are sued for local government areas. Brass Local Government Area was referred to as BALGA, for short; Yenagoa was simply YELGA, while Sagbama was SALGA. So in naming 
the new state, BALGA, YELGA, and SALGA was compounded to form BAYELSA.

Located in the Southern part of Nigeria, Bayelsa covers 21,100 Square Kilometres with capital at Yenagoa .Bayelsa State is geographically located within Latitude 04o 15' North, 05 o 23' South and longitude 05 o 22' West and 06 o 45' East. It shares boundaries with Delta State on the North, Rivers State on the East and the Atlantic Ocean on the West and South.



Bayelsa State is a tropical rain forest, with more than three quarters of this area covered by water, with a moderately low land stretching from Ekeremor to Nembe. The area lies almost entirely below sea level with a maze of meandering creeks and mangrove swamps. The network of several creeks and rivers in the South, all flow into the Atlantic Ocean via the major rivers such as San Bartholomew, Brass, Nun, Ramos, Santa Barbara, St. Nicholas, Sangana, Fishtown, Ikebiri Creek, Middleton, Digatoro Creek, Pennington and Dobo. The vegetation here is characterized by the mangrove forest. In the North, it has a thick forest with arable lands for cultivation of various food and cash crops.

There are four main languages in Bayelsa State, which are Izon, Nembe, Ogbia and Epie-Atissa. The predominant religions in the State are Christianity and Traditional worship. Bayelsa State has 24 first class traditional rulers (and many second and third class traditional rulers) recognized by the State Government.