While the Ijaw and the Itsekiri have lived alongside each other for centuries, for the most part harmoniously, the Itsekiri were first to make contact with European traders, as early as the 16th century, and they were more aggressive both in seeking Western education and in using the knowledge acquired to press their commercial advantages; until the arrival of Sir George Goldie's National Africa Company (later renamed the Royal Niger Company) in 1879, Itsekiri chieftains monopolized trade with Europeans in the Western Niger region. Despite the loss of their monopoly, the advantages already held by the Itsekiri ensured that they continued to enjoy a superior position to that held by the Ijaw, breeding in the latter a sense of resentment at what they felt to be colonial favoritism towards the Itsekiri.

The departure of the British at independence did not lead, as might have been expected, to a decrease in tensions between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri. With the discovery of large oil reserves in the Niger Delta region in the early 1960s, a new bone of contention was introduced, as the ability to claim ownership of a given piece of land now promised to yield immense benefits in terms of jobs and infrastructural benefits to be provided by the oil companies. Despite this new factor, rivalry between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri did not actually escalate to the level of violent conflict between the two groups until the late 1990s, when the death of General Sani Abacha in 1997 led to a re-emergence of local politics.

The one of the city's traditional ruler, the Olu of Warri, was formerly known as the Olu of Itsekiri (this is the claim of the ijaws and the urhobos, but books written before 1952 mention "olu of warri"). When the title was changed by Awolowo's Western Nigeria government from Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of Warri in 1952, members of the other tribes (Urhobos,Isokos and Ijaws) saw this as an attempt to impose an Itsekiri ruler over them.^[1] The title dispute has led to series of clashes between the tribes in Warri over sovereignty.

In 1997, The Federal Government under the late Gen. Sani Abacha created, in the country, a number of local government areas, including a Warri South-West Local Government Council, whose headquarters it located at Ogbe-Ijoh, in the Ijaw area of Warri. Defying reason, and as if the Federal Government was irked by the resultant peace which attended that decision, it relocated the headquarters of the same local government council to Ogidigben, an Itsekiri area of Warri. That singular act of indiscretion on the part of the Federal Government widened the scope of the ethnic rivalry by getting the Ijaws embroiled in a skirmish that has now assumed military dimensions. Since the outbreak of the destructive tripartite war, the Federal Government, whose act of indiscretion triggered it off, in the first place, has sat on the fence, leaving the State Government to bear the brunt of the resultant conflagration.

Riots ensued, hundreds died, and six Shell Nigeria (SPDC) installations were taken over by youths, leading to a drop in oil production. The crisis is known as the "Warri Crisis."^[1]The headquarters have since been relocated to Ogbe ijaw by the Delta State House of Assembly.

The issue of local government ward allocation has proven particularly contentious, as the Ijaw feel that the way in which wards have been allocated ensures that their superior numbers will not be reflected in the number of wards controlled by politicians of Ijaw ethnicity. Control of the city of Warri, the largest metropolitan area in Delta State and therefore a prime source of political patronage, has been an especially fiercely contested prize. This has given birth to heated disputes between the Ijaw, the Itsekiri and the Urhobo about which of the three groups are "truly" indigenous to the Warri region, with the underlying presumption being that the "real" indigenes should have control of the levers of power, regardless of the fact that all three groups enjoy ostensibly equal political rights in their places of residence.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Manby, Bronwen (1999). Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities. Human Rights Watch. pp. 111–112. ISBN 1564322254.