At Last, National Assembly Throws Out Controversial Water Resources Bill

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The National Assembly has finally ended the controversies trailing the Water Resources Bill by throwing out the proposed legislation.

The House of Representatives had passed the bill, but the Senate refused to pass it for concurrence at plenary yesterday.

Senators Gabriel Suswan and James Manager, rising on Senate Order 85, demanded that the proposed legislation be stepped down for lack of details.

They insisted that there was no way they would be part of a legislation that did not come with details.

Other senators supported their arguments and the presiding officer, Ahmad Lawan, had no choice than to put the approval or disapproval to voice vote and the majority, through voice vote, rejected it.

The proposed legislation was christened, “National Inland Waterways Authority Act (Repeal & Re-enactment) Bill 2023.”

The controversial National Water Resources Bill, 2020, re-emerged on the floor of the House of Representatives last year, amidst suspicions from lawmakers.

The leadership of the green chamber, however, assured the lawmakers that the new version of the legislation would capture all the interests of the states.

 Chairman of the House Committee on Water Resources, Sada Soli, said the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as well as commissioners for justice and attorneys-general of the 36 states of the federation had been consulted and the opinions received would be attached to the bill and distributed to all members.

However, a member of the House from Benue State, Mark Gbillah, raised the alarm when the bill was to be taken for the first reading.

The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his response, said, “I asked the Chairman (of the Committee on Water Resources) the same thing this morning and he told me that the issues of controversy that were raised then have been addressed by all the governors. Apparently it is a new bill, that all the governors of the federation – both South and North – participated on this bill and I want to take him by his word.”

Gbajabiamila, who admitted that Gbillah, “raised a very cogent point,” noted that Nigeria is a very diverse country and everybody’s sensitivity must be taken into consideration.

“It is subject to the participation of all the governors if they have bought into it because they govern their states (and) they know what affects them and what doesn’t affect them.

“I think we should leave it at that and be very extremely vigilant. Talk to your governors, both from the North and from the South, and get their opinions on how it affects your states or your areas of operation,” he said.

Gbillah, however, disagreed with the Speaker, stating that the lawmakers were duly elected and given the mandate to represent the interests of their constituents.

He said, “Whatever the governors might have agreed upon may not be acceptable to us. It is we that have those powers as enshrined in the Constitution to enact legislation that will be binding on this country.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari, had in 2017, presented the controversial bill to both chambers of the National Assembly, which seek to transfer the control of water resources from the states to the federal government.

The legislation was titled, ‘A Bill for An Act to Establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, Provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management, Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter.’

The summary of the bill read, “This Act repeals the Water Resources Act, Cap W2 LFN 2004; River Basin Development Act Cap R9 LFN 2004; Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (Establishment) Act, Cap N110A, LFN,2004; NationaI Water Resources lnstitute Act Cap N83 LFN 2004; and establishes the National Council on Water Resources, Nigeria Water Resources Regulatory Commission, River Basin Development Authorities, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, and the National Water Resources Institute.”

The proposed bodies, if established, would, “provide for the regulation, equitable and sustainable development, management, use and conservation of Nigeria’s surface water and groundwater resources.”

Though the 8th House managed to pass the bill, the controversy had frustrated passage of the bill by the Senate.

The Senate had on May 24, 2018, considered the executive bill for second reading, during which senators were divided across regional lines.

While northern senators had supported the proposal and its objectives, their southern counterparts had opposed it.

Those opposed to the bill had pointed out that the bill, if passed into law, would further centralise power and resources of the country.

This, they pointed out, would counter the current move towards devolution of power domiciled with the federal government.