There was confusion on Tuesday over the Water Resources Bill as two leaders of the House of Representatives sharply disagreed over public hearings on
There was confusion on Tuesday over the Water Resources Bill as two leaders of the House of Representatives sharply disagreed over public hearings on it.
The Deputy Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Peter Akpatason said public hearings would be held on the controversial bill, which was abandoned by the eighth National Assembly. However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Abubakar Fulata, who reintroduced the bill on July 23, 2020, said there would be no more public hearings on it.
He said a public hearing on the bill was held in the eighth National Assembly, adding that there was no need for another in the current ninth assembly. This is even as some National Assembly members from the Middle Belt and southern parts of the country vowed to resist any attempt to pass the bill.
The executive had in 2017 presented the controversial bill to both chambers of the National Assembly. While northern senators supported the proposal and its objectives, their southern counterparts opposed it. The controversy the bill generated frustrated its passage by both the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate on May 24, 2018, considered the executive bill for second reading, during which senators were divided across regional lines.
The bill seeks to transfer the control of water resources from the states to the Federal Government. When passed, it will concentrate the control of water resources around rivers Niger and Benue as well as other 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, Nasarawa, Niger, Imo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Plateau and Kebbi states.
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka; and organisations such as Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum; the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Middle Belt Forum, had last week warned the Federal Government and the National Assembly against bringing back the bill.
A lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro Constituency of Rivers State in the House, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, said he was surprised when the bill was brought back to the floor of the House.
Abiante said, “I was in the chamber one morning and I 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 nobody knows it all. The attempt was made; they said second reading and Committee of the Whole. It is not procedural as far as I know in this National Assembly. It is against the procedure.”
Abiante said, “There are some states that will not exist. Lagos will not exist. If you say 3kms from the water, there will be no Lagos State for Lagos people. If you take three kilometres away from River Niger in Anambra, Kogi, Benue, what will be left? It is just like telling us that one man wants to sit in Abuja and be controlling the entire country and every resource, both ground and surface waters.”
In the Senate, leading PDP members said they would oppose the approval of the controversial bill even as the bill is not yet in the Senate.
Punch
