THE Warri crisis has become for the nation a sore point, a recurring rotten, embarrassing decimal in the nation's equation which ought to have been checked or ended long before now. It has become for the people living in Warri a nightmare that has gone on for too long. Its toll on the economy of the once acclaimed Oil City cannot be measured in only financial terms. Its overwhelming assault on the psyche of the people will remain a dent for decades to come. But as usual, when issues, which concern the minorities come up for national attention, the Federal Government becomes heavily pregnant, pathologically lazy and criminally negligent. The length of time it took the nation's President to personally visit the town is an indication of how highly he thinks of the area. In a sense, this is standard response in the power game in any polity. It is a question of power. Except a people have a strong leverage in the scheme of things, their matters are usually treated with levity, with benign or outright contempt. The failure of some leaders of the zone to recognise this problem has led to groups within the area attacking each other.

Any one who had closely watched the Warri situation could have correctly prognosticated with definite accuracy the eventual outbreak of hostilities and the scope of the current conflagration. The attacks and counterattacks were enough warning that the scope might soon change. Also, the sophisticated weapons used showed that Warri was in a war situation. Starting from the creation of a local council with its headquarters in Ogbe-Ijoh and the its subsequent movement to Ogidigben an Itsekiri enclave, intelligence officers ought to have known that the state was toying with fire which could ultimately have implications on the national quota. Also, the rush for oil spoils in the creeks of the Niger Delta ought to have curtailed before now. But as we know, law and order have virtually broken down in the country and scoundrels move about like lords of the manor.

The media had been part of the conspiracy against the interests of the Warri people. For a long time, the conflict was presented as a local one, which did not require national attention. If the conflict had been in Lagos, the media would have been awash with details of the bloody conflict. Yet in a 1999 budget speech, then Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, admitted that the crisis in the Niger Delta affected expected earnings from oil in 1998. As we write, oil production in the region is severely affected by the conflict. Cases of abduction are rampant, thus instilling fear into the minds of expatriates. Governor James Ibori's assertion that the state spends N200m monthly maintaining federal troops is another dimension of the crisis. This is costly business all because of a small ethnic group, which wants to dominate all the other major groups in Warri City.

In brief, the Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri have been neighbours in the Niger Delta for centuries. One of the areas of disagreement is who came to Warri first, who owns Warri. While the Itsekiri claim that they own Warri City. The Urhobo argue that if the Itsekiri owned Warri, their king would not build his palace on a piece of land leased out to him by an Urhobo man. It is on record that in 1952, after the Western Region government under Chief Awolowo changed the title of Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of Warri, there was a fight between the Urhobo and Itsekiri. Near the Agbassa (one of the owners of Warri) juju shrine in Warri, the Urhobo attacked an Itsekiri procession. The Urhobo may have seen the procession as an act of provocation. The violence that followed soon spread to places like Sapele, Eku, and Jesse, etc. The issues were not resolved and have resurfaced again in the first decade of the 21st century. Certainly, all the parties involved must be ready for dialogue as a way of ending the needless and costly crisis.

While the Federal Government is foot-dragging, patriots from the area must begin to work from within as a group whose fortunes are being undermined by extraneous forces. It must be noted that although the Nigerian nation suffers financially from the conflicts, the real losers are people from the immediate geographical environment, the Urhobo, Itsekiri, and the Ijaw. To achieve peace, patriots must extricate themselves from the pigeonholes and prejudices of the past, from the tales and fantasies of the immediate past. This trajectory will no doubt, reduce the polarisation, which the region has experienced. As long as the ethnic groups are hostile to one another, they cannot come together and demand their natural rights. As long as they cannot come together to demand their rights the rest of the nation will continue to exploit them. This for me is the greatest tragedy of the Niger Delta.

Also, it may be necessary to request the old forces on the Itsekiri side to step aside and allow new voices to step in and wipe out the mess which we are currently in. In view of the intractable nature of the problem, new methods need to be developed to bring the crisis to an end. This is where the cooperation of all the groups is imperative.

Although the Niger Delta is rich in oil, it is poor in political mobilisation. If the region had produced three more Saro Wiwas, the insensitivity of the Federal Government would have been challenged and defeated long before now. Also with sufficient mobilisation, the people of the Delta would not have turned against themselves. They would have confronted the different dimensions and scope of what has become known as the Warri crisis. For, in the final analysis, the real problem of the Ijaw man is not the Itsekiri nor is the real problem of the Itsekiri the Urhobo. The level of inter-ethnic marriage shows that the peoples are not fundamental hostile to one another. As neighbours, there are rivalries over political appointments and development facilities. If politics is a struggle about who gets what, then such conflicts are healthy.

But all reasonable persons must condemn the present carnage and call for a halt to hostilities. When the latest round of hostilities broke out, my question was and is, why should the creation or non-creation of local councils generate such carnage and bloodletting? Is there something to it than meet the eye? When did the Ijaw and Itsekiri become such deep-rooted enemies as to unleash such carnage on themselves and the entire area? Now we hear of bunkering routes and quick gains from illegally exploiting the resources of the area. If we fight and destroy ourselves, what would happen if the central government allocates 50 per cent of our natural resources to us? As part of the response of the people from the area, they must work out detailed modalities of what accrues to who and when.

All the ethnic groups in the Warri area, I dare say, are subjects of manipulation of a distant and exploitative Federal Government. Without appropriate and requisite investments in the area, the current feeling of despondency was expected to cause problems before long. One was baffled to read that the Delta State government spends at least N200m monthly caring for the federal troops in the area. Preposterous! If half this sum were expended in the area monthly before now, perhaps the crisis would have been averted. Why should the Delta State bear the cost of the federal presence in the state?

At another level, the conflict has been inflamed by a few selfish local persons who otherwise wine and dine with men and women of the other ethnic group. If we stop to ask ourselves: where do the sophisticated arms come from? Who finances their importation? Why have the security forces not identified these importers and financiers since the outbreak of hostilities? Do we believe that those footmen who sacrificed their lives daily are the real forces behind the conflagration? At time like this, all the oppressed people of the region ought to come together and bury the hatchet in the head of a common enemy, figuratively speaking. At the meeting with the President of the country held on Friday September 19th in Warri, it was clear that the two other ethnic groups want a third local council for peace to reign.

I would like to make some fundamental statements as a way of providing a focus for the discourse. Statement one: there are enough natural and human resources in the region to ensure economic prosperity of all the ethnic groups in the area. Statement two: the region has no strong political platform to give it a coherent voice. Statement three: the state governors and other elected representatives are severely limited by the very nature of the federal system being practiced in Nigeria. Statement five: as long as the ethnic groups fight over crumbs, a proper focus will not be identified and so there will be no achievement of goals. Statement six: as long as intellectuals from the three ethnic groups hide behind the facade of ethnic loyalty, a correct diagnosis will not be made; a proper solution will therefore be permanently elusive. Statement seven: the survival of the region depends on a collective and harmonious approach to problem-identification and solution.

In proffering solutions, certain ambiguities must be identified and put in proper perspective. The first is that all the ethnic groups are geographically and naturally bound to live together. Because physical confrontation between the groups would only be attritional, a political solution would have to be found. The earlier leading minds drummed this into the minds of the warmongers, the better it would be for the region. In real terms, the rest of the federation does not really care whether or not the people of Warri burn annihilate themselves from the surface of the earth. The slow response of the Lagos-based media to the conflagration is enough testimony to this gross insensitivity.

The issues begging for attention are multifarious. While some are local, others are national or global. The globalisation of the conflict is guaranteed by the presence of American troops on the rivers of the Niger Delta. The oil of the region has become a curse on the people. Unfortunately, most local players do not understand this dimension of the conflict. They attribute hostilities to the government's determination to subdue the oil-bearing region; the Americans have also provided the Nigerian government with two naval warships. The oil for the American market and the substance of the Abuja plundering must continue with the blood of the people of the Niger Delta as lubricant. This will not work.

In the effort so far, the people of the Niger Delta have been spared harsh and severe military attacks, thanks to the negative reactions, which trailed the Odi invasion ordered by a democratically elected president. But for the Odi experience and the outcry of the international community, the Federal Government would have wiped out the ethnic groups from the region in defence of the Nigeria oil harboured by the people of the Delta. If this sounds so harsh a view, let us remember the difference in approach to the Odi crisis and the Ife-Modakeke war.

The dimensions of the conflict can be seen in the Ijaw-Itsekiri war, the Urhobo-Itsekiri battles, the interference of the Yoruba ethnic group and the overall interest of the almighty Federal Government. Already, Afenifere has added an unnecessary distraction by giving the Ijaw commandos an unenforceable ultimatum. As at press time, this news report had been denied. It would seem that Afenifere sees Warri as an extension of Yorubaland. Very early, this expansionist illusion must be jettisoned. It would only aggravate the situation.

The Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo should realise that a common solution would have to be found. All those who seemed to have fanned the embers of ethnic conflicts using a selfish and most offensive platform should be ashamed of themselves. At this point, concern should be on how to provide a political solution to the crisis. For example, is it still realistic for the Itsekiri to continue to claim ownership of Warri? What are the compromises all the parties have to make? In my view, the ownership issue is explosive and should be completely abandoned, for any progress to be recorded. It is clear to me that creating three local councils is an option to be pursued vigorously. But since the Itsekiri are opposed to this, we could then think of six local councils, with each ethnic group controlling two each. This is the minimum demand for peace to come to the area. If the Danjuma report states anything different, the Federal Government should discountenance it and accept a popular position. The Idoko and Nnaemeka-Agu panels have made it clear that for peace to return there should be three local councils. This will not polarise the people. It will define the limits of every group in the area. The minority will have its say the majority should have their way.

The first step towards achieving peace is to compel all the ethnic groups to go to the negotiating table with their minimum positions. The major question to be posed would be whether under the current circumstance it would be right or sensible for one ethnic group to claim ownership of Warri. At this forum, all the delegates should be encouraged to be flexible. Because economic resources are involved, an equitable way of sharing the resources of the territory should be worked out. Through the spirit of give and take, a working arrangement would be achieved. Whatever the contention of the three parties, violence can only aggravate the tension in the area. It is also destructive.

Federal cabinet members, Chief Frederick Bozimo and Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor and the governor of Delta State, have a role to play in this process. As political leaders with considerable influence at the federal level, the two ministers should rise beyond the exigencies of the moment and set the road map to real peace in the region. As it is, Chief Ibori has put in tremendous energy and time to try and resolve the crisis. He relocated to Warri at the peak of the crisis in order to effectively monitor and control the situation. Although it did not end the fight completely, it helped to bring real focus on the enormity of the crisis. All stakeholders should go to the grassroots and convince their followers about the need to end the crisis and let peace reign. If these officials seize the opportunity of their current leverage in the scheme of things, they may be able wrest concessions from their kith and kin. For if either by design or default the people of Warri continue fighting, burning and killing, ultimately we all shall have no home to return to. Fortunately, there are men and women from the ethnic groups who share a vision of a united Delta State, a united Warri. More efforts should be put into the process of ferreting these men out. If they are sure that they would have official support, peace discussions would yield fruit.

One of the options to be explored is the use of the name Warri. It may be advisable for the name to be dropped. Currently, it evokes emotions that are too strong for the spirit of give and take. The Ijaw lay claim to the origins of the name just as the Itsekiri do. The claims and counterclaims can go on forever. So it is attritive. If the name-change option is adopted, then we should be talking about Okere, Agbassa, Igbudu, Ekurede-Urhobo, Ekurede-Itsekiri, Ogbe-Ijoh, etc. To assuage feelings, two local councils each should be created for each ethnic group. We must observe that this itself would not be sufficient to quench the feeling of mutual distrust. One of the questions we must ask is what special rights do owners of the land have. If it is wield political power, can this not be achieved when the different ethnic groups control power in their different local councils?