March 17, 2010
The recent bomb attack in my beloved city of Warri is unfortunate, painful and need not happen in the first place. Having grown up in old Warri from the mid 60’s to mid 90’s before migrating to the United States, I can confidently answer the question as to what happened? This is a story of tribalised allegiance, greed, profound failure of institutions, a story of hubris and fall. Warri and the Niger Delta Region was pretty wonderful back in the days.
The recent bomb attack in my beloved city of Warri is unfortunate, painful and need not happen in the first place. Having grown up in old Warri from the mid 60’s to mid 90’s before migrating to the United States, I can confidently answer the question as to what happened? This is a story of tribalised allegiance, greed, profound failure of institutions, a story of hubris and fall. Warri and the Niger Delta Region was pretty wonderful back in the days.
Nothing has done more to damage the city and the region than the activities of government, multi-national corporations, politicians, corruption in government and plundering of state resources by both the federal and especially some Niger Delta governors who short-changed the struggling citizens of this region. Political and tribal brinkmanship laid the seed of the present situation. An urhobo and until recently Ijaw graduate is substantially less likely to get a job or contract in the Oil industry in Warri. Also, the itsekiri until recently had no chance in holding top state wide position.
Warri in its present state is predominantly allegorical. It is the place where real and unreal merge. On the one hand, the city is one substance, but ironically different in every inch from one end to the other depending on tribal affiliation.This mythicized city is part heaven, mostly hell. In its heyday, Warri the urban sketch was a byproduct of the concurrent rise of the middle class. The youths showed increasing gusto in eductation. I recall the swagger of a young Warri boy or girl preparing to take the General Certificate of Education (GCE) or Jonit Admission Matriculation Examination (JAMB). Gone were the days when we struggled to get into the public library. As a university student you are the crown prince or princess in the neighbourhood.
Today, the youths in the city and the region sees education as a weakness and a pursuit for the “liverless” a slang for cowards. This is evidence by the the political and economic might of thugs and criminal who are mostly uneducated in the present scheme of things. These groups of individual arrogantly believe that they can acquire power and wealth without education. What can we learn from the attack? The point of bombing our beloved city as a way of resolving problems is to slow us down, to see and sit with the brokenness continually, to not move on quickly. There will be no true solution if we do not learn from our past.
Resolving the Niger Delta crisis will require courage and reconciliation from all stakeholders in ensuring viable and sustainable development of the region. I urgently call for a genuine Regional Stakeholders Conference. This should not be a forum to showcase who is who in the region. We should all come together and put an end to malnutrition, homelessness, unemployment, ignorance, recognition of hard work and education. I also demands that we put shoulders to the wheel to end crime and corruption.
Felix Ayanruoh, Esq.
[email protected]
Nothing has done more to damage the city and the region than the activities of government, multi-national corporations, politicians, corruption in government and plundering of state resources by both the federal and especially some Niger Delta governors who short-changed the struggling citizens of this region. Political and tribal brinkmanship laid the seed of the present situation. An urhobo and until recently Ijaw graduate is substantially less likely to get a job or contract in the Oil industry in Warri. Also, the itsekiri until recently had no chance in holding top state wide position.
Warri in its present state is predominantly allegorical. It is the place where real and unreal merge. On the one hand, the city is one substance, but ironically different in every inch from one end to the other depending on tribal affiliation.This mythicized city is part heaven, mostly hell. In its heyday, Warri the urban sketch was a byproduct of the concurrent rise of the middle class. The youths showed increasing gusto in eductation. I recall the swagger of a young Warri boy or girl preparing to take the General Certificate of Education (GCE) or Jonit Admission Matriculation Examination (JAMB). Gone were the days when we struggled to get into the public library. As a university student you are the crown prince or princess in the neighbourhood.
Today, the youths in the city and the region sees education as a weakness and a pursuit for the “liverless” a slang for cowards. This is evidence by the the political and economic might of thugs and criminal who are mostly uneducated in the present scheme of things. These groups of individual arrogantly believe that they can acquire power and wealth without education. What can we learn from the attack? The point of bombing our beloved city as a way of resolving problems is to slow us down, to see and sit with the brokenness continually, to not move on quickly. There will be no true solution if we do not learn from our past.
Resolving the Niger Delta crisis will require courage and reconciliation from all stakeholders in ensuring viable and sustainable development of the region. I urgently call for a genuine Regional Stakeholders Conference. This should not be a forum to showcase who is who in the region. We should all come together and put an end to malnutrition, homelessness, unemployment, ignorance, recognition of hard work and education. I also demands that we put shoulders to the wheel to end crime and corruption.
Felix Ayanruoh, Esq.
[email protected]
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