Adamu: I’ll Push Until the Water Bill is Passed

Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, is a forthright man that talks from his heart. In this interview with Stanley Nkwazema, the minister expressed unwavering commitment to ensure the passage of the lingering Water Bill at the National Assembly; the need to follow due process in awarding dam projects as well as efforts to harness loans from international financial institutions for development as well as commitment to meet the open defecation deadline, among other issues. Excerpts:

Your mandate as Minister of Water Resources is to oversee the development and maintenance of the River Basin Authorities across the country. Are these River Basin Authorities living up to their mandate?

The only problem is that we have not been able to really get them to do more on their mandate. There are lots of Constituency Projects that are still finding their way to the River Basin Authorities budget. Some of them are not within their mandate. This is something we keep negotiating with the National Assembly. For now, most of their core mandate projects are no longer at risk as used to be the case before.

Of course, there is the challenge of funding and we hope that going forward, the National Assembly will begin to see the importance and the need to providing more funds to the River Basin Authorities. Don’t forget that we have brought a lot of innovations like the Songhai farming techniques, but again, one major thing is that we have been able to make the River Basins understand they are more of enablers than implementers. They can have poultry farms, water bottling companies to improve their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), but they should understand that whatever they are doing, what is important is that they impart knowledge to areas under their jurisdiction. That is to say that when they set up Songhai Farms, it is not just to earn money, but as training ground to bring in farmers, to introduce them to modern techniques, so that they can go back and replicate what they learnt, so that we can improve our productivity.

There have been accusations of your being selective in the commercialisation of the River Basin Development Authorities, what’s your reaction to that?

Well, the truth is that when we came on board, we started working on the process of revitalising the River Basins. I remember in February 2016, when I set up a committee to give us some ideas on how to revitalise the River Basins. While the committee was doing its work, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) took notice of what we were doing. They approached me and said as far back as 2008, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had approved a process of commercialising the River Basins. They wanted to start with partial commercialisation. I gave my blessings to it and we set up a technical committee and started working. I told them I was going to continue with my reforms and it was up to them to catch-up.

At some point, consultants were appointed by BPE to look at what needed to be done. The cost of the consultancy was so high to do the 12 River Basins at the same time. It was the decision of the NCP that we should start with four as pilots. So, there is nothing discriminatory. They took some big ones and the consultants had the formula with BPE on what to do. For instance, they took Sokoto River Basin Development Authority, Upper Niger and then Ogun/Osun. Two in the North, one in the Sahel region in the North, one in the Middle Belt, one in the South-west and then another one in the South-south or South-east.

In the South-south, we have been told that we can have an idea based on the different locations and the comparative advantages each of the River Basins has that we were able to come out with a programme. So, they worked on that and came up with some ideas and activities that needed to be done. We started with these four River Basins and if we are able to achieve what we want to achieve, either we take another four and do a comprehensive study. Or from the four that we have done, we would say okay, Hadejia/Jamare, you have similar characteristics with Sokoto River, apply the same rules and the same template and then we would have saved some costs.

The Water Bill has been there with the opposition against it getting stronger by the day. Are you engaging enough with the leadership of the National Assembly?

If you ask the leadership of the National Assembly, recently we had a meeting with the Chairman of the Senate and House Committees on the way forward. I equally had a meeting in camera with the House Committee on Water. Part of the problem has been the COVID-19 lockdown that has slowed things down. After we had the meetings, somebody went to report that I had a secret meeting with members of the Senate committee, which was not true. It was an open meeting and on camera. All that transpired in the meeting was recorded.

We are not shying away from this, we feel without that Bill, it means my mission is unaccomplished, so I am going to work to the last day to ensure that we get this Bill passed. Whoever we need to talk to, whoever we need to convince, we will continue to work on it. Even the Governor of Benue, Samuel Ortom after my meeting with the Governors’ Forum, they asked relevant questions and I answered them. Since then, I have not had any opposing comment or fear from his end.

I think the Benue State governor must have been satisfied with our explanation. You see, may be their commissioners did not explain these things to them because this bill was tabled at the National Council on Water Resources meeting in May 2016, before we took it to the Federal Executive Council. All the commissioners of all the 36 states of the federation were at that meeting. Probably, some of them did not adequately brief their governors. But again also, you know that in politics, things are insinuated. Somebody can just wake up and politicise a sensitive issue and that is the greatest disservice that was done to this Bill. Politicising it was a very unfortunate action on the part of those that promoted that campaign of calumny.

How do you explain the slow pace in the provision of irrigation facilities and adding more power to the national grid through the dams?

Like I said earlier, the COVID-19 lockdown slowed us down but that is not to say that things are not happening. We concessioned the Gurara Hydro Power to Messrs North South power. The concession of Dadin Kowa was already there since 2005, but it was not on stream. Now the Hydro power plant is injecting power into the national grid. It is working and it is a question of just commissioning it.

The concessionaire is having some issues trying to get buyers of the power. He is negotiating with various customers. The scheme has been tested and it is injecting power into the national grid. Also, the Kashimbila with 40 Mega Watts Hydro Power Station. We have finished 100 per cent; it is the Ministry of Power through the Transmission Company that has finished the transmission lines. It is also injecting power for the few months and also injecting power to the national grid.

We are in the process of concessioning it. The transaction advisers have been working. Already the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission has issued the outline business details to us. A lot of work is going on but there are processes involved and it takes time. The Itisi Dam is a proposal on the drawing board. The consultant has completed the final design. When we signed the MoU with the Kaduna State Government, it was on the preliminary design but we have to go now and do a detailed engineering design which took us about a year and it has been completed.

We have reviewed the draft final report and we are waiting for the consultant to provide the final report for us to go into the next phase of the job. It has not come in now; I expect it very shortly. Already, we have gone far talking to potential investors and concessionaires. What we are looking at is a company that can take

over the project and do it on a BOT basis from the dam, the hydropower, which also has a potential of 40MWs. We have about six companies that have shown interest and we are soon going to advertise for that project and we have been working with ICRC. Once the final engineering design has been done and we have an idea of the cost, we share with the potential investors.

Infrastructure projects are not like building projects, or like building a classroom block. You need to plan and especially that which has to do with dams and hydropower projects need a lot of time because you need hydrological data. Over a long period of time, you need geotechnical survey data and some times you need aerial mapping. There is a lot of work involved because we want to do things properly unlike what used to happen before now. We are not in a hurry to take a project to contract without doing the necessary things.

In this ministry, when I came in, I found out that a lot of projects either have failed or have ended up costing so much more because all the necessary studies, evaluations and estimations were not done before the contracts were awarded. That is very unprofessional and unpatriotic. At the end of the day, that is why you have so many abandoned projects because may be the site itself was not suitable in the first place or some projects were not even needed in the first place.

I have been compelled to cancel a dam project because I knew that the entire basin where the dam was proposed to be sited cannot support a dam. Simply, by word of mouth they awarded the contract for the dam. Let me tell you that there was a proposal to do a dam in Oji River in Enugu State, and I cannot see how Oji River can support a dam. I stand to be challenged by any geotechnical or water expert that the Oji River that

I know can support a dam. The area is flat; their water table is very high. In fact, if you have artesian wells there and if you drill a borehole, the water will start gushing out without a pump. So, how canyou even excavate a key trench? You know the first thing you do when you clear a dam site is that you have to dig a key trench to make a way so that the water cannot sip by the time you do the embankment. When you are digging a key trench and water is gushing ahead, how can you have a dam there?

Despite bureaucracy in the execution of projects, many also believe that it is difficult to convince you on the suitability of projects?

If you don’t plan a project, you are planning that project to fail. Sure, and simple, there are processes and procedures in planning a project. You conceive, then you do some preliminary work, you do some pre-feasibility, then you do a detailed feasibility. You identify the site; you now go and do detailed engineering studies, which includes geotechnical and hydrological surveys if it is a dam. If it is a water scheme you have to do geological survey to know if the source of water is enough to last the next 30 or 40 years.

You equally need to do a head count of animals that are going to drink from that water. That is very true. You equally need to know the industries that are there and the quantity of water they will need in the next 15 or 30 years, the expansion plans for those industries; you have to factor water for fire fighting. You can’t do these things in six months. Unless you are just building a cattle dam or small animal dams to drink from.

I am unapologetic about these. Processes have to be well catered for and you have to go through the whole gamut. So, if anybody thinks that we are being slow, that is his problem. That is not engineering. Engineering projects are not done by political whims and caprices. If you want to do a job and you want it to benefit the people; you have to do it right. We are not apologetic, we will do what is right. If you don’t do it right, I have seen projects in this ministry where contracts had to be revised two, three times because they had to change dam axis, or they say the soil is not good, simply because they never did their work.

Ordinarily, if you are going to do a dam, ideally, in your study, you should have like two or three sites that you are selecting at the same time. Then you pick the best out of the three. May be what has been going on in the last 20-30 years is that people will just come and say, I want a dam in my place whether that dam is feasible or not.

A classical example of a failed dam, a dam that has no business being there is Ivo dam in Enugu State. It was badly located, badly conceived and now we are saddled with it. It has become a nightmare. The only reason we have to complete that dam is that so much investment has been made and it is now about the safety of the people.

I had a situation where a former Senator Benjy Uwajumogu from Okigwe Senatorial Zone in Imo State, he is late now. He came to me “Honourable Minister, I have N500 million in the budget for a dam in my area” that he wanted me to include it in the programmes so that we should start the dam. First, I inherited 37 dam projects when I came into office, I have enough in my hands and he said he had N500 million in the budget and I said, where are we going to start? Then I asked him a question on what is the purpose of the dam? He replied that it is to provide water supply to the people.

I asked him, must you have a dam to provide water supply? I told him that if he insists on having that dam, for the next 10 years we may not finish the project before we provide water to the people. But I proffered an alternative; Let us go to your location and see whether where is an ideal place where we can set up a water scheme without a dam and he agreed. We went to the area and found that there was a river that we can construct a well, create a pool of water, have an intake and put the treatment plant to provide water. I am assuring you now that in the next few years or before we leave office, may be by 2022, that community, Umuezeala Agbakara, Mbano or the area would enjoy water. But with the N500m if he had been waiting for a dam, it would not be possible. But he was so magnanimous for the suggestion and the project being executed and that he bought my argument. We went there, we found a location and we are building a water scheme.

How have you harnessed loans and grants from multilateral institutions, especially the $700 million coming for water projects in Nigeria?

First of all, Nigeria is a member of the World Bank; we are on the board of directors like every other member country. We are in IMF; we make contributions. In some way, it is money that we are entitled to and these loans are soft loans. You have a moratorium or when to start repaying. Normally, they have a 20-30 years repayment period.

If they have interests, they are very low. Mostly it is the commitment fees and some charges. If a country is running into trouble at some point, the World Bank and the IMF can also restructure the facility. It is cheap money and its money that every member country is

entitled to.

Every country in the World borrows from the World Bank.

It is not only Nigeria and there is nothing wrong with it. The money

is for development and what is important for this administration is

that all the money we borrow, we are putting it in development and

everybody can see. You have seen the railways, the SUKUK funds that we are using to do some of the roads and selected highways. When you are a country and you have limitations in terms of revenue, what other option do you have to provide development to the people? The country is still existing and development has to happen. There is nothing really wrong about obtaining loans from international financing institutions.

Again, the loan is not going to the federal government as such but the

states but the federal government is guaranteeing the facility. The states must meet certain conditions before they can qualify for the facilities. The eligible states have been selected that is for those who will benefit from the facilities, which is about $50-60 million.

Can the government meet the open defecation deadline?

Well, I set targets for the campaign secretariat earlier but

unfortunately, we had a setback last year. The deadline cannot be

achieved without the support of the states. We are working very hard

and in the next few weeks, I am going to address the National Economic Council so that we keep giving them the much-needed information. People are working in the field and we are collaborating with the National Orientation Agency (NOA). We are doing so much and we are reaching a point the campaign will go on auto-pilot so that Nigerian people will take ownership of this campaign.