WARRI ARISE!

Warri is a city in Delta State, Nigeria. It is an oil hub in South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House.

 It served as the colonial capital of the then Warri Province.

There is the Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals located at Ekpan, Ubeji and Ifie-Kporo where majority of international and local oil companies operating in Nigeria have their operational offices close by. One of the nation's major sea ports is sited within Ugbuwangue, Warri. Delta Steel Company is located at Aladja and Otorogu Gas Plants at Otor-Udu, Warri. - Wikipedia

Sadly, Warri as described by Wikipedia is far from the Warri we have now. The pictures you see are pictures of the popular Eneren Junction and Cemetery Road by Warri Staduim. I can vividly remember how beautiful Eneren Junction was 3 years ago but now look at the state of Eneren Junction, so dirty and dilapitated.

A lot has gone wrong and a lot of companies have moved out of the city including Shell and Chevron. If I may ask, who is to blame for the destruction of our oil city? Is it the government, government workers or the youths of the city?

Ok, let me drop my concerns regarding the above mentioned so you help me figure it out.
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Back when James Ibori was governor every resident of Warri will agree that Warri was a beautiful city and things were moving so fine, money was circulating well because there were lots of jobs and salaries were being paid on time. We saw new projects and constructions on a regular basis, street lights were always on at nights which made Warri city lovely at night, we had good roads, to mention but a few. Today it seems the new government has forgotten Warri city, the roads are now bad, majority of the street lights have stopped working, there has been no new project or development in Warri. I came into Warri city and it looked like a village to me, I couldn't see any new building and the ones there are so outdated.
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What about the government workers? Here I want to focus on the community, local government heads and most especially the Police!. Corruption has taken the best of us because everyone is looking for a quick way to make money. The community leaders see all the wrong things happening in the city and overlook them, even the local government is silent. I wonder where all the allocated money is going. The worst part is the police now arrest innocent people on purpose just to get money from their bail. If the police see you with a laptop or tablet you will be arrested without explanation, if they see you keeping any unusual hairstyle you will be arrested, they will ask for receipt if they see you carrying anything and if you can't provide it on the spot the item(s) will be seized and you will be asked to bail it. All these are means to exploit money from individuals, when you have been bailed from the police station then they start apologising saying the town is dry and they need to chop. Please tell me who is better now, the police or the thieves?

Speaking of the youths, they have done more harm than good to Warri, stealing is now the order of the day. You can no longer walk freely with your phone on you because of fear of being attacked or stabbed by cult boys. Once its 6:30pm, it becomes risky to walk in town because the street lights are not working and bad boys are hanging around dark corners. Youths fight development of Warri because of little change they want in their pockets. I have experienced a case where some contractors came to tile a street and the area boys demanded them to pay some amount before they can tile the road, after much talk the contractor moved from the site, leaving the road untiled and till today that road is still untiled because of the act of the community youths and whenever it rains it becomes a problem for cars and pedestrians to pass that road. Or do we talk about the looting of shops in Delta Mall that happened last year, where community boys broke into the mall and looted shops?
How do we expect the city to develop or encourage investors to come into Warri with these corrupt acts and high level of insecurity?

Since I came back to Warri I've been restless and seriously concerned with all the happenings in town, this is why I am writing this article with pains in my heart. I am calling on every Warri youth to arise and make a change, let's get involved and start thinking of what to do to make Warri a better place. It doesn't matter where you are in Warri or what you do, just be the change you want to see in Warri, start from your daily routine and do them with the mindset of making a positive change and you will see a difference.
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#Warri_Youths_Arise
#Lets_Save_Our_Oil_City

By Chigozie I. Alex