By Emmanuel Obe
Warri people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria often say, “Warri no dey carry last,” when they are caught in a web of situations that task their wits. What that means is that if they can’t come top of the group, they can’t be found leading from the rear. There would always be someone that a Warri person would best. Though it boosts their morale, Warri no dey carry last is more like a consolation for poor showing.
I was in Warri during week and the grand old city has turned a shadow of its former self. “Warri don die o,” said a driver who took us to an event venue. Though the city is shorn of great infrastructure, the kind you would find in Lagos, Abuja or Port Harcourt, the selling point of Warri has never been about physically structures. It was always the warmth of the people: old and young, male and female.
A Warri person despite gender, age or class could stand their ground against any army. They are gifted with the gab and they so unabashedly declare their stand on any issue with such gusto and that slang peculiar to them that you would think they had received expert training on the subject they are discussion. You can’t beat them in their expression of self. Even when they know next to nothing about the subject they are speaking on, the Warri person would employ any word within and outside the dictionary to bulldoze their way through.
Back in the ‘80s, when we were students in Benin, any night there was power outage and we were forced to sit out, Warri boys usually took over. They never ran out of short stories and skits to entertain us. And they did thrill us to no end. They were only followed by Saffi Boys, the boys that grew up in Sapele, another city in the Delta region, whose prominence declined after the trade in timber thinned out.
Warri dimmed Sapele when crude oil became the driver of the Nigerian economy. With oil came the international oil companies like Shell and Chevron. Money flowed like the seasonal rains in Warri, and everyone, including young pretty girls took benefits. There were always jobs both onshore and offshore and young people resisted the pull to move to Lagos, Benin or any other city.
Even though Warri comedy was outstanding and widespread, Warri comedians refused to export it. They preferred to stay back in Warri and ‘word’ themselves.
Nigerian government after the civil war of 1967-70 made Warri the alternative capital of the oil industry. It set up institutions like the Petroleum Training Institute and other support institutions for the oil industry in Warri. The essence was to build Warri into the petroleum hub of Nigeria. It was followed with the establishment of the Federal University of Petroleum several years after.
Following the development of the steel industry, a steel rolling mill was set up at Aladja, just outside Warri and to be linked by rail to the Iron and Steel Industry at Ajaokuta and the Itakpe Oil Ore deposit sites both in Kogi State. Everything was just coming to Warri. The East-West Road had earlier been built to link the city with the oil and port city of Port Harcourt in the East.
Oil gave boost to the maritime economy that came earlier to Warri, which became a major port for export of palm produce about 150 years ago. With the Warri Ports, Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals, Shell and Chevron bases and scores of other maritime and oil servicing companies, Warri was an Eldorado until the late 1990s when hostilities among indigenous degenerated into full scale genocidal wars.
As insecurity heightened, people, investors and the companies began to leave Warri in droves to Benin, Port Harcourt, Lagos and other cities. Even Shell, which is the highest onshore investor in oil, began divesting from onshore locations to join Chevron offshore. Shell’s camps are now a ghost own.
PTI is no longer the premium centre for petroleum studies it used to be. The structures can do with a lot of maintenance. The environment is unkempt. The Conference centre of the institution is no longer bubbling. PENGASSAN and NUPENG that used to make the place groove are no longer active in Warri. The management of the conference centre had to permit local barbecue and roast yam/plantain women to set up stands from Friday to Sunday evenings to attract people to the place
There is no point talking about the refinery and petrochemicals complex, which has been idle for a long time. NNPC quarters are still there but has lost its tang. It’s just any other open housing estate.
At some point Warri boys and the girls began to leave. Many of them are now in Benin, where they have bought property and built home. With attractions in Abuja and Lagos, they moved. When Nollywood exploded, it was comedians from Warri that formed the first crop of celebrity comedians in Nigeria led by Ali Baba. In fact, they changed the face of entertainment in Nigeria before comedians from other parts of Nigeria joined the train.
By the time I visited Warri a few days ago, the bubble was no longer there. There was the supermarket, Shoprite and other similar outfits. But the biggest business was land transportation. Keke (commercial tricycle) operations, which has been prohibited in big cities of the stature o Warri was the signpost of the city. Major junctions in the city hosted intercity bus terminals as if they were there to take people out of Warri. Food-is-ready (roadside eating joints) was everywhere.
People were just managing to hold on to their businesses. Morale is low and people are just getting by. Two commercial decorators engaged to arrange two venues for two conferences in the city were found wanting. “Warri has a lot of catching up to do,” said one woman that came for the event from Port Harcourt. “Is this how they decorate halls here? This is not the Warri I knew way back,” she said.
I could not even find places where I could relax and enjoy the globally known Warri comedy treats. Warri don dey carry last.
Emmanuel Obe, the street journalist, can be reached witj koteobeeleme@gmail.com
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