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Warri Port: Delta Gov, Ifeanyi Okowa Calls On Federal Government To Revive Port
Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has called on the Federal Government to quickly resuscitate the Warri Port, saying it is key to curbing unemployment in the state and the nation.
The governor made the call at a Town Hall meeting with Youths, including #ENDSARS protesters, civil society groups, students, social groups, community leaders and stakeholders across Delta South and Delta Central Senatorial Districts on Thursday in Warri.
He said that with the congestion of the ports in Lagos, Federal Government should revive Warri Port and other seaports in Delta to boost the nation’s economy and create employment for the youths.
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He stated that the rate of unemployment was very high, but could not be immediately reversed, stressing that checking unemployment was not just about employing people into public service as not more than five per cent of the population would benefit from it.
Okowa disclosed that to tackle the unemployment trend, his administration adopted skills acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes to empower them.
“We will try to improve our processes of helping our youths to acquire skills and provide them with starter packs.
“The more active ports we have the better for the nation; our economy isn’t working the way it ought to work because Lagos is congested.
“The Warri channel needed to be dredged and the Federal Government has awarded phase one of the dredging but until phase two is awarded we will not be able to achieve any success story on that,” he said.
He thanked the youths for peacefully coordinating themselves and assured that his administration would address some of the issues raised, noting that town hall meetings were an opportunity to hear from the people directly and provide solutions to issues bordering them.
The governor said that the State Government was building multi-billion naira Storm Water drainages in Warri to address the perennial flooding in the city.
“Water channel in Warri is built up, so we set up a committee of those who knew what Warri was in those days and I am glad that today we are now at the operationalisation stage of the report.
“The Warri Stadium will be rehabilitated after we have successfully addressed the flooding challenges in the area.
“Government is about the participation of the people and the governance process is not easy but I believe that we can do better and we can only do that when we begin to talk with ourselves.