{"id":2792,"date":"2022-07-15T05:57:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T05:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2022-07-15T06:01:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T06:01:31","slug":"water-resources-bill-of-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/water-resources-bill-of-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Resources Bill of Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A bill – National Water Resources Bill, 2020 (HB 2024) introduced in the House of Representatives on June 29, is evoking memories of the dictator, General Sani Abacha\u2019s controversial Lands (Title Vesting, etc) Decree No. 52 of 1993. The National Water Resources bill was first introduced in the 8th<\/sup> Assembly in April 2017 during President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s first term. The bill passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate and was jettisoned after the Senate Committee on Water Resources to which the bill was referred, could not report back on it before the 8th<\/sup> Assembly came to an end in June 2019, as a result of the controversy around the bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 7,\n2020, the National Water Resources bill was re-gazetted and reintroduced in the\n9th<\/sup> House of Representatives by its sponsor, Hon. Sada Soli (APC:\nKatsina). It was then referred to the Committee of the Whole and eventually\npassed and forwarded to the Senate for concurrence. Following its failure to\npass in the Senate, the 9th<\/sup> House of Representatives has introduced\nthe bill again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several\nprominent Nigerians, including legislators have expressed their reservations on\nthe bill. Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom who addressed the most recent\nreintroduction of the bill, said that his State would not be a part of it.\nAccording to him, \u201cThe Federal Government\u2019s insistence to take over control\nof water resources across the country is tantamount to the suppression and enslavement\nof indigenous people of this country<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nNational Water Resources bill seeks to provide for the nation\u2019s water resources to be \u2018adequately\nprotected from degradation and pollution\u2019\nand to enhance citizens\u2019 rights of access to clean water, sanitation\nand hygiene. It also seeks to create the\nfollowing establishments: a National Council on Water Resources, a Nigeria\nWater Resources Regulatory Commission, River Basin Development Authorities, a\nNigeria Hydrological Services Agency and a National Water Resources Institute. The\nbill will empower the Nigeria Water Resources Regulatory Commission it seeks to\ncreate, to issue licences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nseveral concerns about the bill. First, it seeks to create in one fell swoop,\nfour new agencies of government. For a country crying over excessive numbers of\nregulatory agencies, several of which are redundant, underfunded or unfunded\nand inefficient, this seems to be going over the top. Secondly, it seems to be\ncreating an added layer of licensing simply aimed at generating money rather\nthan any added value. With government agencies well reputed for collecting\nfunds and fees from the public and unable to apply these for the benefit of the\ncitizens, there is the question whether this does not add to those concerns.\nWith boreholes being dug across the country, mostly because of government\u2019s\ninfrastructural failures, this licensing regime can only add to the burden of\ncitizens rather than address any important public concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill as\nstated earlier, points to reminders about the late dictator, General Sani\nAbacha\u2019s Lands (Title Vesting, etc) Decree No. 52 of 1993, which clearly defined\nland within 100 metres of the shoreline of Nigeria and any\nother land reclaimed from any lagoon, sea or ocean in or bordering Nigeria as belonging to the Federal Government. Under General Sani Abacha,\nthis decree was used to appropriate prime land in some coastal States. Of\nparticular note, was the acquisition of lands in Ikoyi Foreshore, Banana Island\nand the Atlantic coast. These lands were appropriated by the Abacha regime and\nshared to friends and business associates without any national interest value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear\nregarding the National Water Resources bill is that it also has provisions\nsimilar to General Abacha\u2019s Decree No. 52 of 1993. It has provisions that gives\nthe Federal Government powers \u2018over water affecting more than one State\u2019,\nincluding water beds and banks of such water bodies. This particular provision\nis bound to be controversial and raises questions about the intent of the bill.\nIndeed, questions will be exacerbated by the fact that the 1999 Nigerian Constitution\nby virtue of the Land Use Act incorporated in it, may be violated by this bill.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the\ncalls for devolution of powers, federalism and even calls to shed the long\nExclusive Legislative List, there is no doubt that this bill will encounter\nstrong opposition from States and experts that have for long, advocated for\ntrue federalism in Nigeria. With the 9th<\/sup> National Assembly left with\nonly a few months before dissolution in June 2023, it will be interesting to\nsee the pace, if at all, that this bill travels before the 9th<\/sup>\nNational Assembly winds down. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill – National Water Resources Bill, 2020 (HB 2024) introduced in the House of Representatives on June 29, is evoking memories of the dictator, General Sani Abacha\u2019s controversial Lands (Title Vesting, etc) Decree No. 52 of 1993. The National Water Resources bill was first introduced in the 8th Assembly in April 2017 during President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}