EDITORIAL: The obnoxious water bill
The insistence by the Federal Government of Nigeria that it was not going to relent on the Executive Water Bill presented to the National Assembly (NASS) for passage into law is generating tension in the country. In his presidential address during the 60th anniversary of the nation’s independence, President Muhammadu Buhari stated that his government was not going to back down on the Water Resources Bill, which it considers a done deal.
Late last month, the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, convened a joint press briefing with the Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, in which they reiterated the FG position that there was “no going back on the Water Resources Bill”.
What appears to give leverage to this kind of assertion is the blanket pronouncement by the leadership of the 9th Assembly that it would pass any bill initiated by the president, creating a dangerous impression that the nation’s legislature is more of a rubber stamping collection of self-serving individuals at the beck and call of the Executive arm of government rather than a process-driven people’s representative lawmaking bodyIn fairness, however, some members of the NASS have upbraided the hasty and shoddy manner in which the bill was presented, arguing that it was not presented according to the standing order of the House, and that members were not served a copy of the draft in advance as procedures and protocols demand.
Fortunately, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamela, has withdrawn the bill, urging that it be well gazetted and properly presented according to the rules of the House. In an earlier editorial on the Water Bill, we had called for caution and restraint in pushing for the hasty passage of the bill, especially because of its potential for further dividing and shattering the already fragile unity of the country. In that editorial, we dispassionately presented the views of all sections of the country and all shades of opinion on the matter and advised that the Water Bill be withdrawn in the interest of national unity.
It is on that pedestal we still stand today. Indeed, the Water Bill is one bill too many which has drawn the ire of a cross section of Nigerians, especially the southern parts of the country. The Niger Delta has borne the brunt of nationalization of crude oil resources which exploration has wreaked havoc on the economic life of the average person in the region and devastated the ecology of the oil producing communities. If the north wants the bill and the south and the middle belt do not want it, the bill has clearly divided the country and such a bill should not be passed into law.
A normal Executive Bill untainted by questionable motives should just have been presented to the National Assembly which houses elected representatives of the people and let them do due diligence and decide on it instead of shoddily and desperately pushing for its passage into law. Worse still, the position of the Executive arm of government that the bill must be passed into law leaves much to be desired as it tends to point to motives that are anti-federalist.
More worrisome still is the inauspicious time and atmosphere in which the Water Bill is being presented. It is not at such a time that several parts of the country are agitating for restructuring the country to mitigate the tendency to separatism that the FG should be breathing down the necks of the people to impose an injurious water resources regime.
More disturbing still is that the insistence on the Water Resources law which will dispossess the south of control is coming at a time that the same federal government has accorded free solid mineral mining rights to Zamfara State.
It is unarguably wrong for the FG to claim that all water is the property of all Nigerians without recognizing that all solid mineral resources are the property of all Nigerians. Besides, the problems arising from the use of water do not affect all Nigerians just as the problems arising from the exploration of crude oil (which government had claimed is for all Nigerians) do not affect all Nigerians. Only the Niger Delta people, not all Nigerians, are adversely affected by the exploration of crude oil.
We advise that instead of the desperate pursuit of this divisive, harmful, and anti-federalist Water Bill, the federal government should concentrate on reining in the insurgency in the north east and the herdsmen banditry and terrorism all over the country and address the looming food crisis incidental to insecurity. Finally, we advise that the Water Bill should be discarded in favour of urgent and concerted pursuit of programmes which will facilitate national unity.
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