By SUNNY IKHIOYA

My intention this week is to write about the tensions arising from the new tax laws and our penchant for taking things for granted until it hits us directly, albeit negatively. I have heard the grumbling from people in the aviation sector, the oil sector represented by NUPENG and sister unions, the communications taxes that have been running relentlessly through fraudulent bank deductions and even the unwholesome taxes by various non-government agencies. 

You will want to ask what their elected representatives have been doing about this? Chief Blakey Ijezie and his accounting firm ran a series of tax enlightenment seminars to sensitise us on the coming changes in our tax laws. 

How many of us took heed? In the beginning, Blakey said: “We should really open our eyes and focus on this audacious fiscal policy and tax reforms programme of President Bola Tinubu. If we ignore making our inputs to the working, when he starts implementing the recommendations… we will definitely start another round of lamentations.” He sounded this warning in the month of November 2023.  Today, he is looking like a true prophet. If he was in the faith manipulation business, you would wonder how many adherents would be shouting hallelujah by now. But that is our way. The serious matters are consigned to the dustbin while the mundane take precedence. 

The matter in my heart today is the situation of our great Warri city, as tension continues to rise there due to contending ethnic and chauvinistic interests. It was while going through this that I stumbled on the tribute by Chief Eugene Ikomi to his late brother, Chris, who was cruelly murdered in the course of the crisis. You cannot be ‘bread and buttered’ in Warri city and be happy with what is going on there now. 

The soul of the city is gone. The vibrancy that you are seeing is enforced by the original die-hards, but deep within is a piercing pain. No original Warri boy will see the level of degradation and be happy. The buccaneers who knew not the former Joseph have taken over. Properties have been destroyed beyond reparations. Some sections are like ghost cities; the commonality of existence has been stripped off; it is now to your tents O Israel; every man for himself. 

How did it get so bad? How did things degenerate to this extent? Are there no way permanent solutions can be found for these perpetual conflicts that have brought the city to its knees? Can we find true peace, justice and fairness in the whole shenanigan? Where do we start from? How do we restore the city to its old glory. These are questions that bugged the mind as I read the heart- rending piece/tribute of a friend who lost a dear brother during the clashes between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups in the eighties. I read this piece and became saddened immediately. 

 The tribute of Chief Eugene Ikomi to his late brother Chris Ikomi has brought such urgency to the Warri situation that all concerned parties need to have a rethink on the way forward. 

The leaders of the different groups must meet in an atmosphere of love and respect for the people and find a way out for peace and prosperity to return to the city. I lost a bosom friend who was also rising steadily in the Chevron hierarchy. Up until this day, his whereabouts cannot be determined, and the impact of his loss was devastating on his family as the wife and children who were then living in Lagos later died out of frustration. 

I am talking about the late Willy Tenumah, whose father was a high ranking Warri Chief. The burial ceremony could not be properly concluded on that day because of the kidnapping of Willy and his friend on that fateful day. 

Here is Chief Ikomi’s tribute to his brother:  “Exactly 26 years today my brother, the late Christopher Oghosanine Ikomi, was murdered during the first Ijaw and Itsekiri crisis. 

Chris worked for Chevron and had a bright future ahead of him. He was murdered/killed in the line of duty. He was a gentleman,and a man of peace who loved his job with great passion, never caring for tribe or religion.Those who knew him will attest that Chris was loving, kind,cheerful and always willing to help. Ever since that, unfortunate tragedy and the crisis that followed, Warri has never remained the same.It has lost its glory and shine. 

So I ask again: to what gain was Chris’s loss? To what gain was it to those who murdered him in cold blood? At just 33 years, his life was cut short without regard to his son and family. Now, 26 years down the line, another crisis is about to rear its ugly head . My question is: When is enough, enough? What does this town -Warri- that was once a loving, peaceful and successful town, that use to and still host every tribe, without prejudice, needs to give back to get to its glorious days and find peace and prosperity once more? I know my late brother Chris will want peace and not revenge, for he was never a vengeful person. 

To you all instigating crisis and unrest, to you the youths who never witnessed the last crisis and who have never seen the sweetness of coexisting in peace, who don’t even know that only in peaceful coexistence will there ever be success, I say to you: Think! Have a rethink and make peace instead of war. Many of us born and bred in this town lost and sacrificed a lot for this fragile peace we have enjoyed to date. Do not let anyone use you for selfish gain. Ask yourself, 26 years to date, since the last Warri crisis: where is the development? 

We have leaders and rulers, right? What exactly has stopped them in the last 26 years in bringing progress and development to this city? Let’s start asking the right questions and holding our leaders accountable rather than allow mediocrity thrive. Let’s embrace peace..” 

This is the challenge of leadership at all levels in the state. Let us take the bull by the horn and embrace a lasting peace so that future generations will prosper from this initiative.