02/01/2018
Let's break our barriers - and build our neighbourliness!
As the dusk of 2017 sets out, birthing in the dawn of another year in 2018 - being heralded by the evocative Seasons of Christmas in arrears and the exultant New Year in advance - We DWarris4Okowa, on behalf of our families and the convivial, jovial, novel, resilient, relevant and resourceful people of the Warri Federal Constituency (fondly called the 'three Warris' of metropolitan Warri South, cosmopolitan Warri South West and megalopolitan Warri North) expresses exorbitant compliments from our hearts full of extreme wishes of excessive goodwill, stupendous prosperity and foretastes of glad tidings, always, throughout the remaining days and the year(s) ahead - to our dear and dexterous Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa the Executive Governor of Delta State, the team playing members of his Executive Council, the synergistic Legislature of Delta State House of Assembly and the rectitudinous Delta State Judiciary.
There is no doubt that the exuberant manifestations of friendship, neighbourliness, communality and exchanges of gifts and pleasantries, between the diverse ethnic groupings, political dichotomies and moral persuasions, which accompanies these Seasons has indeed served it purpose with the waft of a sense of relief from the extraneous pains we have borne in our hearts due to the self inflicted disharmonies attempting to attack our originality as a people who have lived together for over 3 centuries - though we adored our individual ethnic, traditional and customary heritages, yet we honoured our collective pulse as neighbours. It is this orientation that has motivated us to galvanise our aspirations around the continuity of your SMART Agenda beyond 2019, in these inauspicious time. Hence we accentuate our commitment thus: D Warris inclusively supports Okowa's next election 2019 (Warris is ONE2019).
As we celebrate these season, we are thankful to God for many things amongst which is the deeply etched consciousness of peace which we have assumed under the barely 3 years of the State craftsmanship of Sen. Dr. Okowa, as the governor, the dexterity at which the 6 autonomous kingdoms and their Kings have committed their reign to peace - accentuating the axiom that 'development thrives in an environment of peace'.
At this I cannot but reminiscence the years prior to the third republic, where the Itsekiris, Ijaws, Urhobos, Isokos, Igalas, etc interacted, intermarried, inter-traded and lived as neighbours in a social contract and Treaties respected by all. We hardly fought without living together - we could condole ourselves without parting ways, our life style then earned us international reputation and attracted investments that still reminds us of the legendary Koko Ports, Ogheye Fishing Port, Warri Wharf, Escravos Trade routes/now Escravos and Okpokiti Crude Oil Terminals, Costain, Bata, Sapela, Leventis Stores, United African Company Trading chains, extended in its linkages to the Burutu Port and Forcados Terminal - all these circumferencing Warri now geopolitically delineated into the three Warris.
Our dream is that we live every day henceforth like we have lived in this season, as though reliving what made us 'Old Warri' - known for everything that can promote Commerce, Trade, Business and Development but kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, violent agitation hostage taking, ethnic rivalry, etc.
Though it is also hard to admit that we are our own undoing but not without a blame on the Nigerian State which effort at developing where the mainstay of the Nigerian economy lies - can still be referred to as Greek gift compared to what is been extracted from us daily at the naked plundering of our ecosystem and biodiversity, while distancing the Head Quarters of these operators outsides the perimeter of their business geography. In this regard, it is our hope that as we extol the tenets, peaceful coexistence amongst us as a people, your demeanour will fast-track all meaningful development to our constituencies.
Furthermore, as the dusk of 2017 eclipses with its odious challenges, misgivings and uncertainties to usher in the rising hope for a New beginning I wish you all: matchless possibilities, quantum prosperity and harmonious neighbourliness in 2018 - to further enact and espouse the ideal that, The Warris Is Still One Neighbourhood Entity (Warris is ONE).
Consequently, I call on all and sundry - our Regal entities, their hierarchical Chieftains and subordinate subjects, the Resilient Constituents, the diverse power blocs, other Sociocultural groupings, Civil Servants, Dons and Administrators of Tertiary Institutions, Parents Teachers Associations, Religious Communities, None indigenous residents, Professional and None professional bodies, Political parties and their affiliates, Civil Society Organisations, Labour and Trade Unions and Associations and the general public, as the season evokes love, peace and goodwill - that may we be resolved to make it a way of life as we transact with one another and interfaces with the Government at all level, not only in this seasons but beyond, knowing we all can achieve much when we work together.
Once again we, the Warris 4 Okowa 2019 are persuaded that nature has given us another opportunity to serve one another better. With a new beginning, there is still a better way forward!
