Having grown up (partly) in Warri, I hereby proclaim my sense of entitlement to the oil city. My entitlement is as much as, and no less that than that of the scurrilous youth irritants, the adult delinquents as well as the well-meaning and confounded, discomfitured indigenes and non-indigenes resident in the city. I declare that if I cannot have my way in the muted advocacy for a Warri renaissance, at least I will have my say.
Alas, sorry to say, this sense of entitlement is one of the reasons the oil city is drowning in negativity, disunity, insecurity, poverty, squalor, violence, mal-development and social dysplasia. Whereas Warri mushroomed into a cultural melting-pot during the oil-boom years after the Nigerian Civil War, it is most unfortunate that inter-ethnic warfare signposted the doom of the city at the turn of the millennium. Among other atrocities, the war in Warri led to the wanton destruction of Ogidigben, a riverine settlement which was forcibly rejected as the headquarters of Warri South West LGA, and many other towns and villages. Allegiances to different ethnic groups assumed a fiery trend with exclusionary territorial domains claimed by no less than three traditional rulers. While the belligerent men went about in day time committing murders and arson, they sneaked around at night sleeping with women from “enemy” ethnic groups.
Now, you may ask, where do we place the “hybrid” (Ijaw-Itsekiri-Urhobo) offsprings of the secret intertribal night trysts? The important lesson we are to learn from the calamity of disunity and war in Warri is that these are unspontaneous contests by individuals for narrow economic and political advantage, camouflaged as cultural, ethnic exclusivism.
But did bitter experience teach us anything? Probably not, as the advent of lawlessness after the war in Warri clearly shows. This was manifested by the notorious extortions derisively known as deve (or development levy) which fostered anything but development. By this strange contrivance, law-abiding businesspersons, companies, contractors, traders, travellers and residents were subjected to all manners of illegal taxes, levies, fines, rates, involuntary donations and fees by itinerant warlords, bandits, thugs, gangsters, area-boys, hoodlums, agberos and egbe-wedgers while the government and security agencies looked the other way. To protect staff from incessant kidnappings, oil companies in Warri began outsourcing most of their services to local people. But this was to no avail as the riverine oil locations and communities became no-go areas especially for oil company personnel. Warri soon degenerated into a countercultural and dangerous city, unsafe for both criminals and law-abiding people.
In response to ensuing anarchy and anomy, companies divested and relocated their headquarters and offices from Warri. The eventual collapse of Delta Steel Company at Ovwian-Aladja and departure of “almighty” Shell Petroleum Development Company with all its wealth sounded the inevitable death knell of the city. Jobs disappeared along with an army of engineers and other skilled personnel who migrated to saner and safer climes. The vacuum created by company closures and outmigration was inexplicably filled by the self-same miscreants and self-seeking politicians thrown up by the Fourth Republic. The once vibrant cosmopolitan oil city of Warri became a shadow of itself, notorious for its new-fangled insecurity and infamous deve.
Most regrettably, three decades of “creating an enabling environment” by government for the private sector in Warri culminated in scaring the private sector away from the oil city. Is it not ironical that the same government that looked the other way when the cauldron bubbled has now gone to plead with Shell to come back to the city? How can we expect the oil giant to come back to Warri when virtually nothing has changed? To all intents and purposes, bandits, warlords and hoodlums are still operational and the riverine environment is still unsafe. Uniformed agents still parade the streets, harassing people, demanding all manners of illegal payments. People are still scared of visiting Warri while those travelling through the city are always on the lookout with their vehicle doors firmly locked, expecting the worst. At times the windows of locked doors are wound up while passing through Warri even when there is no air-conditioning in the vehicle! The agony can best be imagined.
And, for that matter, government’s laidback policy has not changed either. From the doomed Warri Industrial and Business Park and Warri Export Free Zone which never saw the light of day, government has now launched a N78 billion contract to construct three flyover bridges in the Warri metropolis. This is good news but, curiously, the main flyover bridge constructed two administrations ago in the city only compounded traffic bottlenecks in Effurun. Will the new project eliminate the troublesome potholes in the city roads? How many sustainable jobs will the new project provide? Is government willing or able to provide security for the construction company and its men and materials? Will three flyover bridges lure Shell back to its nemesis? Truthful answers to these questions will determine if the flyover bridges will solve the internecine problems of the oil city.
At times you get the impression that people are carried away by the fake mantra of “Warri no dey carry last.” As a matter of fact, the oil city has receded to the last position in most parameters of modernity and development and it now lags behind most cities of its calibre in the country. For example, there is no single official waste dump in Warri and solid wastes are dumped literarily anywhere and everywhere. I think Warri comes last on that score. We must express gratitude to the itinerant waste pickers who seem to have mitigated the problem by reducing the quantum of used plastic bottles and metal wastes.
Warri also comes last in public transportation as the modal vehicle is the incapacious and incompetent tricycle (keke), which is now becoming dominant even in intercity transportation linking Agbarho and Ughelli to the south, Orerokpe to the east and Sapele to the west. Everywhere, especially the Effurun axis seems to have become a park for loading of offloading goods and passengers. To compound the transport bottlenecks, government suddenly created a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) lane on the quintessential Warri-Sapele Road but refused to operate it as no buses were acquired for the project.
If Warri comes last on the indices of waste management and public transportation, it looks like it comes first in the rate of deterioration into shanties. Practically every nook and cranny of the city has been turned into a commercial district. Street traders jostle with vehicular traffic, with keke compounding the mayhem for all road users. Warri also comes first in the matter of extortions by miscreants, a menace that has crept into other cities (and even rural areas) in the state. These are most dubious distinctions which cannot win any trophy for the city and I am not sure this is the sense behind the slogan of “Warri no dey carry last”. Note also that the city has the “distinction” of not implementing any recommendations in the Warri-Effurun Master Plan 1999-2019 which government commissioned at considerable public expense. I am sure Warri actually comes last on that score.
Well, since I do not want to be condemned by fellow Warri patriots as a chronic naysayer, let me admit my awareness of Warri’s first position in the command and propagation of Pidgin English, now recognised as a distinct language with its own orthography. This language which effectively bridges the communication gap between all ethnic groups in Nigeria (and elsewhere) is spoken and understood by both the literate and illiterate and is therefore, a significant contribution to national integration. However, I hope Pidgin English will not be a hindrance to the comprehension and use of Standard English which is still the official language for our school system and examination bodies.
It is obvious that the problems of Warri are largely self-inflicted. But like all ailments, self-inflicted injuries need significant others for healing. On this count, the city is fortunate to have the current Delta State governor who proudly and boastfully identifies himself as Warri Boy and has taken the grandstand by inaugurating his landmark projects, the three flyover bridges. He should go farther. To save Warri from itself, perhaps the most important step is to restore the rule of law and security. Deve Must Go! Also, the town planning authority should be immediately awakened from its slumber to stop the rapid and disorderly slide of the oil city into a sprawling, rough, ramshackle shantytown. Restoration of law and order may indeed be the best incentive to attract Shell back to the city. Who knows, perhaps other investors may also be encouraged to take a stand in the city.
- Prof Okolocha writes from University of Benin.
