Some members of the National Assembly have vowed to resist the Water Resources Bill reintroduced by Abubakar Fulata, Chairman,House Committee on Rules and Business.
Titled”A Bill for Act to establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, Provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management,Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter: The bill seeks to concentrate the control of water ways which cut across 20 states in the hands of the Federal Government.
The affected states are,Lagos,Ondo,Ogun,Edo,Delta, Kwara,Kogi Benue, Anambra,Enugu,Akwa Ibom,Adamawa, Taraba, Nassarawa,Niger,Imo,Rivers Bayelsa, Plateau and Kebbi states.
The bill which was first introduced in 2018 in the National Assembly,met stiff opposition from lawmakers from the south
The Senate had on May 24,2018, considered the executive bill for second reading but the upper house became divided as members approached it along regional lines and as such,it was rejected.
The bill made appearance again on July 23 2020, and representative Fulata,who reintroduced it had said there would be no further public hearing on it.
However, some members of the National Assembly from the Southern parts of the country and the Middle Belt have vowed to resist any attempt to pass the bill which was rejected by the 8th Assembly.
The Deputy Majority leader of the House of Representatives, Peter Akpatason was quoted as saying that Public hearing would be held on the bill.
A number of leaders from the Southern and Middle Belt areas of the country have raised their voices against the passing of the bill which they described as obnoxious.and an attempt to annex the water ways by the Federal Government in favour of geo-political zones whose rivers are drying out. They see it as a deliberate plot to cause trouble in the country.
A. Vox pop carrief out on the streets by current matters, revealed two sides of a divide
While a few interviewed who are indigenes of Katsina and Kano said it was for the good of one Nigeria as it would help Agriculture and boost the economy, the Southerners drawn from Rivers,Ondo and Anambra said it aimed at land and waterways grabbing and should be rejected immediately.
Obinna, Anambra businesman said ” it is an attempt to take our lands end waters as well.No wonder they sent their herdsmen to our forests to kidnap and kill our people.
Adanma who claimed Rivers asked what lawmakers were doing when the bill passed its first reading in the 8th Assembly saying,”We should be careful with the way we do things before Nigeria breaks”
Tayo from Ondo said” I hope it won’t go the way of CAMA? I think we are under siege already,first it was Ruga settlement which they wanted to lord over Southern parts of the country secondly CAMA,now this Water bill.I hope it is not another Ruga settlement? ” he said.
Governor Ortom of Benue State and Nobel Laureate,Wole Soyinka had strongly condemned the bill. While Soyinka said Nigeria will be doomed if the Water Resources bill is passed,Ortom in his own threatened ” l would sue the federal government and the National Assembly . A bill which was outrightly rejected in 2018 cannot be passed through the back.”, he said.
The lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo constituency of Rivers State,Awaji Abiante said the bill was reintroduced illegally.
According to him,he was in the chamber one morning and saw someone,Fulata,move a motion bringing something ( the Bill) back,” I can’t find it in any gazette,If there is,they should let me know because no body knows it all The attempt was made they said second reading and Commitee of the Whole,It is not procedural” he said.
