AKPABIO ‘KILLED’ THE BILL, IT’S ALIVE AGAIN!

should take care of the river bank in Zamfara or in Bauchi. Take the Lake Chad for example, it is drying up, most of the rivers and lakes are drying up, how do we define the banks? I believe it will create more problems, so we should just remove that one.”

Responding again, Senator Gemade said the controversy being generated by “this little clause here can be avoided completely by removing together with beds and banks, so that nobody is now concerned about definition of beds of rivers and banks, which are just changing, because the schedule is definitive. Therefore, we remove this clause, together with the beds and banks and that should solve the problem.”

Not so fast! As far as Akpabio was concerned: “My respected senior, Senator Gemade, there is an issue even in the rider before then, that there be no private ownership of water in accordance with the provision of this Act. A lot of people have bought property where within the property it includes a small river and then of course they use it either as fish ponds or for other things. When we make a law like this, and it becomes all encompassing, it will lead to a lot of confusion. We really need to know what it means by river in this case, because I can give you an instance sir.”

As a former governor of a coastal state, Akpabio now cited an example to drive home his point: “Between us (Akwa Ibom State) and Cameroon there are many communities in Ogoja area that are sharing very small rivers. By the time you make this thing a law, it means that the small river they enjoy, which they use for agricultural purposes, will now become a federal government property. So, when we say that there shall be no private ownership of water but the right to use water, even the water in your swimming pool can be interpreted to mean it belongs to the federal government of Nigeria!”

Not done, Akpabio now concluded: “I believe we should get legal experts to look at these things and proper definitions should be done. If we have to rush and pass this kind of bill now, you are not only creating more problems but we are further reducing Nigeria to a Banana Republic at a time that we should devolve power to the states. I do not know how we intend to describe it but I am saying that let us not do something that cannot stand the test of time even in the court and with that, cause more confusion for the communities.”

Apparently sensing that the mood of the senate had changed following Akpabio’s intervention, Senator Ahmad Lawan tried to explain the import of the contentious clause but not before replying Akpabio, “Your swimming pool cannot be a federal government water body, affecting more than one state.” Lawan then explained: “There are few rivers in Nigeria that go through more than one state and this is what this particular clause is talking about. There are some rivers that belong to communities, some within one local government. The federal government does not have control over those. It is not like we are trying to bring every water under the control of the federal government, that is not correct.”

Lawan continued: “This is an attempt by the federal government to ensure that rivers like Benue, Niger that cut across many states are really under its control and utilization. Other rivers are not affected by this. I have River Yobe in my state. It is not under the control of the federal government and it will not be because of the nature of that river. So we are not saying all rivers would be under the control of federal government and no community would be denied the utilization of their water body that is local to them, that is within their area. No one should assume that the federal government will have a total control of all water bodies in Nigeria. That is not even practical. I want to appeal to my colleagues, please; this is one bill that we need to pass to reform the water resources sector in this country and everybody is waiting. The submission by the minority or the opposition leader definitely was off the mark and I urge that he should understand it the way it is here.”

Akpabio would not let this go without a challenge. “I do not want to argue with the Senate Leader but I believe that we are all here in a bipartisan manner so the issue of opposition leader does not come in. I am only Minority Leader. And I will only have my say, he can have his way. But I am saying that the essence of making law is for it to stand the test of time and not to bring more confusion to the community.”

And then, Akpabio provided another example of the problem with the bill: “In a place in Akwa

Gbajabiamila

Ibom, there is a state polytechnic where we have a small river that the students use. That river goes into the next community in Igwa. It is a very small river but because Igwa is in Abia State, it means that this law will affect that small river in front of the polytechnic next to Peter Memorial Seminary in Ikot Ekpene where I come from and this is not up to two kilometres.

Akpabio continued: “The moment you say any small river that crosses more than one state automatically belongs to the federal government, it means that small river is now going to be managed by the federal government. The intention here is to look at certain rivers that the federal government wants to have control over. Let us list them and those must be rivers like Benue, Niger etc. There is nothing wrong in listing them here; but when we put this kind of ambiguous clause about federal government’s total control of ground water, surface water and particularly the one that crosses into another state, there is no river that starts and ends in one state.”

Akpabio had other examples to cite: “The Cross river for instance takes its roots from the Cameroon mountains before crossing River State and then enters into Akwa Ibom State. And from Akwa Ibom it goes into Abia State. In some areas, it becomes a very small river while in other areas, it is quite large. If you can deny our people just mere small water in their area because that water touches the next village which is another state, we are over legislating.”

After highlighting all the challenges, Akpabio then provided a way out of the lacuna: “The way out is that we must go back and design the rivers that we are talking about. If we want to talk about River Benue or River Niger, Nigeria is not so large that we cannot list the rivers that we think the federal government should have control over. But if you are going to say rivers, I am saying sir, it is going to be something that will cause confusion. We must make laws to protect our citizens. In fact, this is going to lead to more war, more communal clashes in future because people are going to stand up and say ‘look, this your river here belongs to the federal government because it has passed my backyard which is in another state’.”

Akpabio then posed a rhetorical question: “Can you even define the boundaries of states today? We have had problems since 1976 and many states have no boundaries because the National Boundary Commission has not been able to even define their boundaries. Some local governments have no boundaries. If we are talking about internal rivers in Nigeria and they must now be owned by the federal government, we are over-legislating. We are supposed to remove a lot of things from the Exclusive List and devote powers to states and yet we are now denying the states and the communities on even the use of common water. We must take a second look at the bill but I am not against it.”

And the final word from Akpabio: “We should get legal experts and if there is need for us to list the rivers we think federal government should have control over, let us list them and legislate on those ones because there are too many tiny rivers that communities are depending on for their daily bread and we cannot legislate on that naturally.”

By this time, Akpabio had succeeded in making the bill unattractive to a good majority of his colleagues. All the earlier enthusiasm about its passage had also vanished. This prompted Senator Shitu to intervene. “I believe he (Akpabio) misunderstood the whole concept. If you have seen clause 2 on public trusteeship of water you will see that sub-section 4 and 5 have provided for that which says, ‘States my make provision for management, use and control of water solely within their boundaries but shall be guided by the policy and principle of the federal government in relation to integrated water resources management’. I believe he (Akpabio) misunderstood it.”

However, the battle was already lost. Senator Bareehu Olugbenga Ashafa (Lagos State) who spoke next said he was going to support Akpabio’s line of argument “for the first time and the reason is not too farfetched.” In Lagos right now, according to Ashafa, “we are in court with NIWA (Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority) based on our waterways. Those are creeks that should be left to the state government to control, but what you find is that NIWA has extended its federal might in controlling the navigation and all other things. There will be need for us to identify the rivers that belong to the federal government as well as the states if we want to avoid any problem.”

Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir (Sokoto State) countered that a clause in the bill already covered that aspect while Senator Binta Masi Garba (Adamawa State) prefaced her contribution on the need for senators to “be more Nigerian when we want to discuss national issues”. She then argued that the same principle guiding Trunk A roads controlled by the federal government would apply to waterways. She said the bill “has covered the fears of whatever each and every one of us is saying but the federal government have a responsibility for its citizens and I think this is one of those things.”

That offered no comfort to Senator Adeola Solomon Olamilekun (Lagos State) who said “from the word go, this bill has sounded controversial and I want you” (addressing Saraki) “to use your leadership quality and style to let us take our time before going forward to pass this bill.”

Olamilekan added: “I also have reservation concerning this clause. As we speak we are currently at the Court of Appeal with NIWA concerning the right over our waterways in Lagos. These rivers mean a lot to these states and even to host communities. I believe we can set up a committee to go ahead and look into the nitty-gritty of this bill in line with the constitution and the existing Act. We have done it in the past in this chambers; we should also use this medium to address all the inadequacies or controversial issues that this bill contains so that together we can pass it and everybody can be happy going forward.”

And then Saraki ruled: “Distinguished colleagues, I think for a bill like this, despite my eagerness and enthusiasm to pass it quickly, it is important that we carry everybody along. If we agree, the chairman of water resources committee and the vice chairman, as well as the chairman and vice chairman of Judiciary committee together with the Director of Legal should go back and look at all the issues. Let us give them maximum of one week. I would like them to look at the suggestion by Senator Binta Masi on Section 5 that if you change ‘States may’ to ‘States shall’ make provisions, does that satisfy those that have concerns? Or do we really believe that these issues truly trample on the powers of the states?”

That committee never reported back. And with that, the National Water Resources bill was consigned to the dustbin of history by the 8th Senate!

Now that the bill is back to the House of Representatives, the controversy has returned. But the real issue is more about the inordinate ambition of the federal government to amass more powers at a time Nigerians clamour for devolution. So, whatever may be the merit of the National Water Resources bill, I do not see it sailing through the House when members resume from their recess. I doubt if there is any governor in Nigeria today, whether in the North or in the South, who would sign off on this bill that takes away the powers granted them by the Land Use Act.

Incidentally, if there is anything Lagos has successfully done in the past 21 years, it is to challenge any attempt at power grab by the federal government at the supreme court. Most times the state has won. The current case between the state government and NIWA is precisely over this same issue. So, with Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila as an important stakeholder in Lagos, this bill is already doomed. But the whole controversy is really unnecessary. I wonder why the federal government did not deem it necessary to tinker with the controversial clauses before returning it to the National Assembly. Afterall, Akpabio actually provided some leeway.

When an atmosphere of ethno-religious suspicion has replaced our previous harmonious coexistence, introducing a controversial bill without consensus and wide consultations with critical stakeholders was always going to be a problem. This bill may contain some good clauses, but it is ill-timed. First, it is coming under a presidency that has increasingly found it difficult to shake off the tag of being deeply parochial and sectional. Two, it trespasses into the terrain of land and water resources and therefore conflicts with powers conferred on state governors by the Land Use law. Three, the bill presupposes a unitarist federalism which runs counter to the current agitation for power devolution and restructuring in the country.

Like the Companies and Allied Maters Act, 2020 (CAMA 2020), an otherwise necessary and important legislation that has become divisive, the National Water Resources bill has also strayed into our delicate fault-lines and lost in the brackish waters of Nigeria’s perennial political brickbats. But the president should be worried that almost his important policies continued to energize certain subliminal impulses in our society. And that Nigerians now appear incapable of having any decent conversation without resorting to ethnicity and religion.

All factors considered therefore, this National Water Resources bill has become a problem. Conceived in a time of mutual suspicions, promoted by divisive interests and opposed by the current politics of ethno-religious distrust in the country, this bill and the debate around it now amount to a quantum waste of legislative time and energy. It is dead on arrival!