Calabar

Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers and creeks of the Cross River (from its inland delta). Calabar is often described as the tourism capital of Nigeria, especially due to several initiatives implemented during the administration of Donald Duke as governor of Cross River State (1999–2007), which made the city the cleanest and most environmentally friendly city in Nigeria. Administratively, the city is divided into Calabar Municipal and Calabar South Local Government Areas. It has an area of and a population of 371,022 as at 2006 census. History Calabar was the name given by the Portuguese discoverers from the 15th century to the tribes on this part of the Guinea coast at the time of their arrival, when the present inhabitants in the district were the Quas. It was not till the early part of the 18th century that the Efik people, owing to civil war with their kindred and the Ibibio, migrated from the neighborhood of the Niger River to the shores of the Calabar.