And on to the Delta

I left Awka, entered a bus to Onitsha, a place that acts as a big bus interchange for cities in the East of Nigeria. There I encountered a few touts that were a little aggressive and had to force my way through them in order to find a bus going to my next destination – Warri.

Warri is located in Delta state, the South-South geopolitical region and was well known to me at the time for two reasons. One is it is one of the major oil centres of the country. Several large oil companies have site there, most notably Shell. The other reason is that it was the centre of one of the most notorious tribal clashes in Nigeria’s recent history.

Anyways, at my stay in Warri I was thankfully hosted by another AIESEC friend (Linda) I met at the conference in Zaria. Staying with her family was highly enjoyable (more on that later).

My first impressions of Warri were that it seemed a lot smaller and quieter than I imagined. Everything I'd heard about Warri and the South-South big cities from Nigerians so far had generally been of a place full of crime and dangerous people and kidnapping of foreign oil workers (or perhaps those people like me who might be mistaken for oil workers).

I remember a particular story they had told me that you should not answer your phone in public places as you are likely to get a tap on your shoulder from one of the local area boys (Linda said they are nicknamed the "good guys"). They will then say you can finish your call, but to hand it over to them when you’ve finished. Though Linda was later to confirm that this story is actually true, and as a matter of fact point out the particular traffic intersections where it is particularly prominent, the place just didn’t feel so dangerous.

I said Warri is famous for its oil. The reason being the whole state is full of oil drilling sites including on land, throughout the river delta areas and out to sea. On a drive we took through the city we went briefly inside the Shell headquarters. The only other obviously visible sign was the big flame from a local refinery constantly burning on the horizon. From what I've heard, the oil companies aren't well liked because the state is full of pollution as a result of drilling and so too from places where locals have cut into pipes in order to siphon off the crude for a little personal profit.

Oil is actually one of the main contributors to the violence I mentioned. Warri is a bit different to places like Ife in that it is full of people from a variety of different tribal/language groups (Isoko, Itsekiris, Ijaw, Urhobo are the major ones but there are others). Without naming names (tribes), as I understand it some years ago these groups started to jostle for more share of the profits from the oil companies. Essentially they began to claim that a greater percentage of the land originally belonged to them and so they should be getting more of the profits. This led to some horrific crimes and violence. Different groups attacked each other at different times. The oil companies were driven away, the area was flooded with small arms and criminals ruled. My friend told me if you were from one tribe it was deadly to move to a different part of the city. She tells me she started using her English name, rather than the name of her language group, to avoid trouble.

All that said, things have settled down now. The tribal clashes have at least stopped as the government recognised it was missing out on profits whenever the trouble started up. But the puncturing of pipelines is a common occurrence often leading do deadly explosions. So to I read the following excerpts from a news article on the region today as I write this article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4619566.stm

The four foreign oil workers kidnapped by Nigerian militants have told Reuters news agency they are in good health. The four - from the UK, US, Bulgaria and Honduras - were taken hostage by armed men on speedboats a week ago while in the Niger Delta region.

The kidnappings and explosion, the latest in a string of violent incidents in the troubled region, have slashed Shell's production there by some 220,000 barrels a day - almost 10% of Nigeria's average output of 2.6 million barrels.

One catering contractor died in the attack and ten Shell workers are being treated in a company hospital in Warri.

(Actually, I put the last quote in because I actually visited this place. Whilst pretending we entered the Shell facility to go to the club we actually attempted a short drive through the grounds. But we only got as far as that same hospital.)