Prominent Towns in Delta

Warri
Latitude:   5.3714         Lat (DMS)                 5° 22' 17N
Longitude: 6.3090        Long (DMS)              6° 18' 32E
Elevation (Feet): 830
Population Est.(2006):  303,417
Zipcode:  332213
History:
The Warri kingdom was established at about 1480, by a Benin Prince, Ginuwa, who became our first Monarch. Since then, there has been, with the exception of the period of interregnum between 1848 and 1936, an unbroken succession of monarchs over the Warri kingdom. This is an inland port on one of the Niger River channels in the Niger Delta. The Olu (king) of Warri is the head of the Itsekiri people.
      According to Bini and Itsekiri histories Ginuwa, a prince of Benin founded the Iwerre (Warri) Kingdom about 1480. In the 15th century Warri was visited by Portuguese missionaries. At the beginning of the 17th century, a son of the reigning Olu was sent to Portugal and returned with a Portuguese wife. Their son Antonio Domingo was Olu of Warri in the 1640s. Olu Erejuwa, who reigned from about 1720 to 1800, expanded Warri politically and commercially, using the Portuguese to further Warri's independence of Benin and to establish control over a wider area.
    Later Warri served as the base for Portuguese and Dutch slave traders. Warri became a more important port city during the late 19th century, when it became a centre for the palm oil trade and other major items such as rubber, palm products, cocoa, groundnuts, hides, and skins. Warri was established as a provincial headquarters by the British in the early 20th century. In May 1952 the government of Western Nigeria changed the title of the Itsekiri ruler from the Olu of Itsekiri to the Olu of Warri, at the request of the Itsekiri. The Ijaw, Urhobo and other people of the community objected to the change, since they felt the new title implied that the Olu was ruler of Warri, not just of the Itsekiri.
 Warri is a small cluster of villages, where three indigenous groups, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo, when left alone,they were able to live in relative peace, in spite of differences in customs and traditions. The British intervention, early in 1900s, designed to advance British interest in the region, destroyed this harmony. The disruption of peace began with the establishment of a consulate close to the center of growing commercial activity on mainland immediately north of Warri River.

 
      The acquisition by colonialists, of land needed for development of the new township was handled unjustly not only to deny communities compensation due them but also create privileges for Itsekiri establishment. The Itsekiri establishment profited from the British presence largely through the emergence of Dore Numa as a lackey that helped to perpetuate British interests in the area. With the end of British rule in Nigeria, the economically and culturally privileged Itsekiri minority, now finds its privileges and interests questioned by the Ijaw and Urhobo, the other ethnic groups in the area. The Itsekiri reaction to the challenge is to organize to maintain privileges by relying once more, on the instruments of the government in power, to safeguard interests.The Ijaw and the Urhobo majority, nonetheless, continue to demand jurisdictional rights for the collective good and interests of all peoples in Warri. One would have expected that when communities are in conflict, the State as a neutral body, to step in to restore order, arbitrate between the groups, or to correct torts that may have been inflicted on any of the communities by the other. What happened in Warri, showed that the State whether it was Action Group Government of Western Nigeria or the military regime of General Abacha, became, for one reason or the other, a party to the conflict by aligning itself with the Itsekiri establishment to the detriment of other groups in the city. The government had at various times, imposed solutions that only served to provoke further misunderstanding, rivalries, tensions, friction, conflicts and sometimes violence between the ethnic groups in the area. The non Itsekiri indigenous elements of Warri do not appear to be willing or prepared to abide by measures which they regard as efforts to enforce domination through local colonization in ways that are reminiscent of British Colonial imperialism.
    The intensity of the conflict, on the surface, is hard to explain to writers like Lloyd and others in the western world who consider ethnic riots as urban issues that involve working class people. Lloyd in his attempt to explain the ethnic politics in Warri posed the question: What had the Itsekiri common man to gain from these struggles? The conflict does not appear to have much to do with economic competition between the groups. Warri has not been known for any labor unrest that arose from factory closings or evidence of businesses that are specifically limited to any one group. As Lloyd inferred the presence of the Urhobo has been exaggerated to create a climate of unnecessary hostility. Neither is there any immediate likelihood that the Itsekiri will lose their identity because of emergence of Ijaw and Urhobo as political forces to reckon with in Warri. Nevertheless, Llyod may have sensed the real reason for the ethnic problem, when he remarked that: "one ought to look closely to see which individuals gain from exploiting this tension and study the means by which they seek to gain their ends". Lloyd's accounts confirm what many in the Niger Delta had known for a long time that the common Itsekiri man, is susceptible to manipulation by his rulers. The Itsekiri establishment had exploited the cultural affinity its ethnic followers show for the Olu and had used the followers to defend narrow interests that are not theirs. In normal times, the ordinary Itsekiri person relies on mutual economic ties with his or her immediate neighbors, the Bini, Ijaw, Isoko and Urhobo to make a living. The Itsekiri that live in Sapele, an Urhobo town are more than those in Warri, many Itsekiri are known to flock during times of ethnic riots in Warri to Sapele and other Urhobo towns and villages for safety. Thus Itsekiri fears of domination by Urhobo seem to be unrealistic and appear to be expressed out of proportion to the actual danger facing the Itsekiri.
     Warri like many other Nigerian cities has become highly heterogeneous and polyglot. The reality of urbanization, means that the Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, and in fact, all groups of people in Warri, regardless of race, ethnicity or religious background, must learn to live together in peace and harmony, sharing common goals and working for a common destiny. The medieval doctrine of feudal 'over-lordship of Warri', imposed by the British, has long been deposed in Nigerian courts. Besides the lack of legal basis, using the notion of over-lordship to establish privileges for some while denying the same to other indigenes of the same area, is archaic and has no place in a modern society. Many members of the three ethnic groups, in spite of cultural differences and obstacles created by their leaders, much to their credit, continue to intermingle through marriages and business interactions, making the need for peaceful coexistence all the more imperative. The indigenous communities can improve on this trend by coming together through credible leaders to fashion a course of action to halt the theft of oil wealth and to wrest the control of the resources of the area from the federal government. The proceeds from the rich oil resources are enough to develop the area in ways that will guarantee employment, and improve the standard of living for all the peoples of Warri, and bring much needed stability to the area. In essence, Warri can be used as an experiment to determine what the society of the future will look like, a differentiated political community where individual rights are respected and protected. The success of the experiment will have ramifications that go beyond the boundaries of Warri; it would have great implications for civilization and all mankind.
   In 1997, The Federal Government under General Sani Abacha created a Warri South-West Local Government Council, with headquarters at Ogbe-Ijoh, in the Ijaw area of Warri. Due to political pressure by the Itsekiri, the headquarters was then relocated to Ogidigben, an Itsekiri area of Warri. Riots ensued, hundreds died, and six Shell Nigeria installations were taken over by youths. The crisis is known as the "Warri Crisis".
Source: waado