Akpabio‘Killed’theBill,It’sAliveAgain!
In a badly divided polity, it is no surprise that a number of stakeholders have expressed opposition to the recently re-introduced National Water Resources bill in the House of Representatives. But in describing it as “another version of Ruga which objective is to create grazing areas in the 36 states of the federation for herders and their livestock,” Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State has further raised the stakes. Consequently, he merely re-echoed the statement by the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF) that had earlier advocated that “Freedom-loving Nigerians should be ready for protracted resistance to this move to grab land around waterways for Miyetti Allah by the executive arm of the government.”
While I agree that this administration has mismanaged our diversity, a great deal of ignorance is being peddled on this bill. And controversial as some of the provisions may indeed be, what I find more interesting is that the man who actually raised the red flag about this bill is now a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and serves as Minister for the Niger Delta. But by the time of his intervention, he did so in his capacity as the Senate Minority Leader and member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Before I conclude with my own position, I want to take readers through what transpired in the 8th Senate. It all happened on 24th May 2018, when the Senate Committee on Water Resources chaired by Muhammed Ubali Shitu (from Jigawa State) presented its report on the executive bill by President Muhammadu Buhari. According to Shitu, the bill sought to provide a regulatory framework for the water resources sector in Nigeria; ensure that the nation’s water resources are properly protected, developed, conserved, managed and controlled; meet the basic water needs of the present and future generations; enhance citizens’ right of access to clean water and sanitation; promote public-private partnerships in the development and management of water resources infrastructure, etc.
Shitu gave the highlights of the committee’s work, beginning with a public hearing. He also listed eight legislations that cover different aspects of the water resources sector and conflicting provisions that needed to be harmonised. “The effect of this is that there is no single comprehensive legislation dealing with water resources sector in Nigeria, with the resultant poor management of this important sector.” This gap, according to Shitu, made the Federal Executive Council to, in 2016, approve the draft Water Resources Bill and two policies—National Water Policy and National Irrigation Policy. He explained in detail what each of the policies was set out to achieve and that the Water Resources Bill was designed to consolidate these laws.
When Shitu concluded his presentation, he received commendations from colleagues, beginning with Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero, former Governor of Nasarawa State, who described the bill as straight-forward. “I happened to be a member of the committee that worked seriously and diligently on this bill and even the World Bank is waiting for its passage so that they can bring in money to improve irrigation facilities in Nigeria. Right now, we have well over $2.5 billion that is waiting to be utilized and I urge my colleagues to support this bill so that the water sector can be regulated properly”, said Adamu. In his contribution, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (from Taraba State) said he could not see any contentious issues in the bill and that “It is one key sector that we need to work upon to bring smiles on the faces of Nigerians; I want to urge my colleagues that we should expedite the passage of this bill.”
The then Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, said he needed clarification on Section 87 that talks about 2 per cent ecological fund. “Can we put that in the bill mandating the 2 per cent ecological funds when there are already clear guidelines on how ecological funds should be applied?” Saraki asked. It was Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, (current Senate President who was at that time Senate Majority Leader), who replied: “It has often been a very difficult and dicey situation when you have to take money from the ecological fund because what this means is that we have to amend the Act itself otherwise, they cannot afford to give money. That is the implication.” This prompted Saraki to prod further: “So how are we to be guided by that?”
Senator Barnabas Gemade (from Benue State) responded by saying that “when laws are made and we realize that the importance of such law is superior to existing laws, we do by compelling reasons amend others laws to suit it. This water bill is so important to this nation that we need to do whatever is possible to ensure it functions.”
The arguments regarding the 2 percent to be taken from the ecological fund went on with Senator Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa State) and Senator Francis Asekhame Alimikhena (Ondo State), making their contributions. At the end, it was agreed that the issue could be resolved without stopping the passage of the bill and with that the Senate dissolved into Committee of the Whole to consider the report, clause by clause, for passage. Taking his chair, Saraki laid the ground rule and then said: “Distinguished colleagues, this bill has 152 clauses. It is the leader’s first bill and it is the president’s bill so we are going to have a very swift movement in passing it.”
The first contribution came from Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi State) who argued that the senate needed to define river banks “because it is a very serious thing otherwise, a lot of conflicts is going to arise. You take the Niger river for example; that traverses several states, and then we will say the bank. What do you mean by the bank? You have to be very clear about where the bank extends, from the centre of the river to either side of the river system?” Abdullahi said further that the senate might consider the system normally adopted in the Road Sector, where 50 metres from the centre of the road is the determined area where the governmental authority and responsibility rests. “River banks are even much more contentious than roads, because of agriculture, fishing and several other activities that take place there. So, 50 meters under this circumstances may be too much, but we have to be able to define exactly where the authority of the government lies, otherwise I have no objection to the bill.”
This comment, according to Gemade, who responded on behalf of the committee, was well taken, “but I would like to point out here very clearly that when you come to road infrastructure, you have definite measurement. Rivers do not have definite measurements, so you cannot define banks by the way of measurement from centreline.” Besides, Gemade further argued, the riverside can change even in the cause of one year.
It was at this point that Senator Godswill Akpabio (former Akwa-Ibom Stae governor) said he would disagree with a clause on the description of the river bank. “First, we have a lot of decisions on this, that the river banks are natural elongation of the surface of the land, and then of course the last government that had to deal with the issue of even the offshore oil said it should be allowed up to 200 nautical miles. There is already a statutory position to that also which was reconciled by the Supreme Court. Then most communities in Nigeria that have rivers, sometimes those rivers dry up, so when we start making laws to recover some of those places, when they dry up, they become residential quarters and all that, and then it will cause a lot of confusion here.”
Akpabio went further: “We need to be careful. If we want to say that all waters in Nigeria must be legislated upon by the federal government, then we will cause a lot of confusion because there are a lot of communities that depend on small rivers to survive, whether in terms of fishing or in terms of planting rice and other things. If we now say the river banks that they utilise for their daily bread belong to the federal government, and subject to federal legislation, we are doing what we are not supposed to do, we are concentrating power at the centre. We are not adopting devolution of power, we are bringing back Nigeria as a unitary state and we are now even trying to dispossess communities of their land, because some of those places are natural elongation of the land. I do not know how we are going to implement it in order to make sure that the communities are not short-changed.”
Apparently now seeing the bill differently, Senator Paulker Emmanuel who had earlier praised it said he had a rider to what Akpabio had just said. “There is a need for us to define the types of rivers in the present situation where we are making changes in the law. Most of these rivers even dry up, that is seasonal rivers. So if we define banks as being owned by the federal government, definitely that will be tantamount to creating a lot of problems. There is a need for us to look at it closely, and then define what these banks are, because when you talk about rivers, you talk about the weight of the river, there are some rivers that if you go there in the dry season, around November, December they do not have water. So how do you define the banks? It will create more problems.”
The Senator from Bayelsa then added: “We should look at it closely before we endorse it. If we just say a river bank, it makes no sense. The Leader should look at it closely and think about the definition of what he means by river bank. Like I said earlier, there are some rivers that are seasonal, so you cannot even define the banks of such rivers. So when they dry up what is the bank? There is need for us to define this river bank, if not it will create a lot of problem for the federal government. More so, every person is talking of devolving powers, now you say federal government