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By Daniel Kanu
Again, President Muhammadu Buhari has re-submitted the controversial and vexatious water resources bill to the National Assembly.
This is the third time the president is introducing the perceived obnoxious bill to the assembly.
The bill which is sponsored by the Chairman of the House Committee on Water Resources, Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), almost tore the nation and the National Assembly apart, when it was first introduced a few years ago.
In 2018, during his first term in office, under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the president brought the bill and it was rejected. Thereafter, in 2020, shortly after being sworn in for his second term, he re-introduced the bill and again it was rejected and thrown out.
The contentious bill has continued to generate uproar among stakeholders and some commentators say it will be a call to anarchy if desperately passed into law, ignoring the danger that looms.
Although, the sponsors of the bill tried to assure the lawmakers that the new version of the legislation would capture all the interests of the states, vigilant observers who spoke to Sunday Sun, said that “there is more to it that is beyond the ordinary eye” .
Against the backdrop, the relentless campaign by Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu and a clique of lawmakers at the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the bill has continued to fuel speculations that perhaps, there are ulterior motives.
Most Nigerians are of the view that the bill, if passed into law, will clip the wings of state and local government authorities as well as individuals from making use of even the water in their backyard without a permit from Abuja.
It is curious to critical Nigerians who spoke with our reporter why the president is bent on forcing the bill on the throat of Nigerians.
The reintroduction of the highly suspicious bill is seen as a bad move as it lends credence to suspicion by observant citizens that a wicked plan is being hatched somewhere to deprive Nigerians of their indigenous land and resources and make these open to perhaps, herdsmen or Jihadists.
One of the offensive provisions in the bill is that while there is popular agitation for resource control and devolution of powers to the states and local governments, the bill seeks to compel Nigerians to permit and pay tax to the Federal Government like oil and gas operators before they drill boreholes at the backyards.
The bill also seeks to cede ownership of waterways, Benue Valley and river banks to the Federal Government.
Expectedly, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere; the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) as well as other right advocate groups have outrightly rejected the recent reintroduction of the bill in the House of Representatives.
PANDEF through its spokesperson, Hon. Ken Robinson, vowed that it would continue to reject the bill, which it described as an obnoxious, draconian, imperialistic and unnecessary evil.
“The people of the Niger Delta region, particularly of the South-south geopolitical zone had rejected the Water Resources Bill from the beginning and our position has not changed; it remains rejected.
“That bill is not only obnoxious, but draconian and imperialistic. It is an unnecessary evil. That was why it attracted wild condemnation when it was first introduced.
“The Eighth National Assembly heeded the voice of the people by throwing it out. It was likewise stepped down when it was reintroduced in this Ninth National Assembly in 2020, following similar denunciation by citizens.
“It is, therefore, troubling that the Bill has again been introduced in the House of Representatives, more so, with less than a year to the end of the session of this National Assembly.
“The questions we would want the sponsors of the Bill to answer are; why the insistence on this Bill? Whose interest are they trying to satisfy?” PANDEF queried.
It said it was most absurd and callous that in the face of increased clamour for the devolution of powers to the federating units, the Federal Government was plotting to accrue further powers to itself through this abhorrent bill.
PANDEF asked: “Do we need to further apprise that our oil and gas resources have been plundered, over the years, by the Federal Government and its agents; our hitherto luxurious ecosystem has been decimated and basic means of livelihood destroyed with little or nothing to show, in terms of the development of our communities and improvements in the living conditions of the people?
“Yet, they now want to control our water resources; the people of the Niger Delta Region say a big no to it.”
PANDEF urged the members of the House of Representatives and Senators not to allow themselves to be used by self-seeking officials and groups to secure legislation that would exacerbate the tension and crisis in the country.
“We caution, in particular, the federal lawmakers of South-south extraction, and indeed, of the entire Southern and Middle Belt regions not to support a bill that is anti-peace, dangerous and that could destroy the fragile unity of this country,” the group warned.
PANDEF also described the claim by the sponsors of the bill that southern governors are now in support of it as illusory and preposterous, cautioning that such a claim should be discarded.
For Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the bill is completely obnoxious, condemnable, rejected and should be thrown into the trash bin.
The organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Chiedozie Ogbonnia said that the bill is completely at variance with present national realities.
“At a time we are canvassing devolution of powers to states and local government areas, some people are still toying with the idea of controlling river banks and all that. It’s so sad.
“This is nothing, but another RUGA. The same way we resisted the bill the last time, we are even more resolute now. It is unacceptable and totally out of tune with realities,” he added.
He, therefore, asked the governors and members of the National Assembly from the Southeast to completely resist and reject the bill.
According to him, “our position is clear and has not changed. We said no to the bill and we are urging our governors and federal lawmakers to also reject it. Apart from the Southeast, political leaders from the Southwest, South-south and North-central should also reject this obnoxious bill.”
Also on its part, Afenifere has kicked against the reintroduction of the bill.
National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Comrade Jare Ajayi, told Sunday Sun that the bill was simply another way of bringing RUGA through the back door, saying that it is unacceptable and should be discarded.
He expressed fear that the reintroduction of the bill was to deprive the indigenous people of their land, insisting that this is not in the best interest of the ethnic nationalities.
“The reintroduction of the Water Resources Bill is unacceptable to Afenifere; this is because it is another way of depriving the indigenous people of their land and this is not in the best interest of the various ethnic nationalities given the experience with the Federal Government.” he submitted.
Hon. Mark Gbillah (PDP, Benue), also expressed serious concern on the bill, stressing that most Nigerians rejected the bill the last time it came up on the floor of the house.
He told Sunday Sun that “some of us are not comfortable with this bill. It is ominous and we suspect ulterior motive. I do not think it is in the best interest of Nigerians”.
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), an advocacy group that has been at the fore-front championing the crusade: “Our water our right” said that the re-introduction of the bill is unacceptable and must be resisted.
Director of Media and Publicity, CAPPA, Comrade Phillip Jakpor told Sunday Sun that “the bill is evil, suspicious, obnoxious, wicked, contentious and loaded with malevolent agenda.
“It is a bill that must be resisted by all well-meaning Nigerians.”
University teacher, Dr Abraham Essien,was not different in his view. He told Sunday Sun in his reaction that “beyond the surface provisions, there are causes for concern that the bill seeks to give full control of all waterways and their banks in Nigeria to Fulani herdsmen with their cattle; and subsequently to further their territorial expansionism ambition, under the guise that all Nigerians have fundamental rights to free movement”.
According to him, “the fear is rife particularly because Buhari has always voiced his belief in grazing routes and the nomadic rights of his Fulani kinsmen, without voicing a corresponding concern about the havoc occasioned farmers and herders clashes across the country.
“It is not far-fetched to conjecture that if the law sails through, natives will be rooted out of their indigenous land, which is akin to handing the country, or parts of it, over to the Fulani through the back door”.
Coming at a time when Nigerians are clamouring for proper federalism that entails devolution of powers to the states and local authorities, the introduction of a Water Resources Bill by President Buhari is believed to be inimical to peace.
The best thing the president should be advised to do going by the public gauge is to withdraw the bill in the public interest.
