Major stakeholders in the Niger Delta region have expressed their anger against the reintroduction of the Water Resources Bill into the National Assembly.

The stakeholders, who described the bill as obnoxious, draconian, preposterous and anti-people, asked the lawmakers to shred the bill and throw it in a thrash can.

Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri said if passed into law, the bill would have adverse effects on Bayelsa and other littoral states.

Diri said: “The Water Resources Bill is not acceptable. The provisions of the bill, if it becomes law, would have more negative impact on us as we are a mainly maritime environment.

“Having taken away our oil and gas resources, the Federal Government is trying to introduce a water resources law at a time that we are still fighting for a fair deal. This bill is tantamount to stifling us. The Federal Government is on our neck and we cannot breathe anymore.”

Diri called on the sponsors of the bill to withdraw it, saying that Nigeria operates a federal system of government not a unitary government.

He said: “We are running a federal government where you do not centralise resources or political power. It is where you run a unitary system of government that those kind of draconian bills can come.

“But in an ideal federal system, you allow the states to expropriate their resources and pay taxes to the Federal Government. They emasculate the states’ resources and then give peanuts to them. They still turn around to say the states are not performing. How can they perform when you take away all their resources?”

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) insisted that the bill was reintroduced to exploit the Niger Delta and its people.

The Spokesman of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, wondered the interest of the ninth Assembly in the bill since it had less than a year to wind up.

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Describing the bill as obnoxious, Robinson said all the stakeholders had unanimously rejected it and would continue to resist it.

He said: “PANDEF and the Niger Delta people and indeed well-meaning Nigerians from the Middle Belt, Western, South Eastern part of the country and I’m sure even in the northern part of the country, rejected that bill ab initio when it was first introduced in the eighth National Assembly. And our position has not changed.

“That bill is not only obnoxious, it is anti-people, ill-intended and it is against the people, particularly of the Niger Delta. It is ridiculous that people are promoting that kind of bill at this time. The National Assembly’s lifespan is less than a year, so whose interest are they trying to protect or project.

“The fact is that they have plundered our natural resources with little or nothing to show, in terms of developmental initiatives in the region and improvement of the people’s living conditions. And so we will not allow the Federal Government of Nigeria to take over control of our water resources. It is a big ‘no’ for us.

“Come to think of it, there is a general clamour for devolution of power, that the Federal Government has too much power in the federation and the government is through this obnoxious bill trying to coax more powers to itself.

“You have not managed the oil and gas resources and our tax system very well, to get money to run the country effectively. And the money you are receiving are being plundered. We hear stories about billions being used to cut grasses in farms and all that; now they want to take our water resources.

“We will resist it totally. There is a consensus for us in the Niger Delta. Every group has looked at it and the feed back we got is, it is a big ‘no’.”

The Kinsmen of Governor Nyesom Wike in Rivers State, the Ikwerre People’s Congress (IPC) Worldwide said that the bill should be cast into abyss describing it as disguised Rural Grazing Area (RUGA).

The Chairman, IPC, Livingstone Wechie, said the Nigerian state must respect the sentiments of the various Land and Water owning ancestral natives sensitive issues.

Wechie said: “While we charge all Nigerians of goodwill across ethnic lines, stakeholders and National Assembly members from our region to reject this demonic Water Bill, IPC states for the umpteenth time that the Ikwerre nation which is one of the few frontline contributors to the national economy has been denied all entitlements, rights, privileges and political recognition in the scheme of things.

“This is particularly when the issue of the Niger Delta is addressed because we have chosen the nonviolent path and we shall not take it anymore.

“We own a vast end of the waters including land, Oil and Gas and our heritage is tied to them which must not be sequestered again by this mischievous bill. We insist that it is an unjust, fraudulent bill that is evil-intended and should be buried perpetually in the interest of peace and progress.
“It is on record that the Bill was initially introduced and rejected during the 8th Assembly, following public outcry but the desperation of the sponsors leaves do much to be desired.

“We hold that this obnoxious Bill seeks to empower the Federal Government to control all water resources in the country such as rivers, streams, lakes and underground water in all parts of the country still aimed at giving unlimited and unchecked charge of Herders over our ancestral territories including those of other ethnics by force.

Similarly, the Itsekiri Liberation Group, through its Coordinator, Oris Mone, asserted that the bill had no way of improving the Itsekiri nation and the Niger Delta at large.

Mone said: “The bill, in the first place, is not friendly to us, especially in this region and the Itsekiri nation which I stand for. You don’t just sit down somewhere and introduce a bill to be passed for your own selfish benefit.

“If you look at the system now, everybody wants to introduce a bill, use the National Assembly to pass bill and the President will assent to it for their own personal benefit.

“Whereas, the effect of the bill, the people it will affect, are not considered or carried along. For us in Itsekiri Liberation Group, we see it as anti-people bill, anti-Niger Delta bill and anti-Itsekiri bill.

“Because it is not going to in any way affect the development of the region, rather it will be a means of extracting more from the Itsekiri nation”.

The Ijaw Community Law Centre (ICLC) also opposed the bill and called on the National Assembly not to pass it in its current form.

It, however, advocated its review and incorporation of the views of Nigerians, especially littoral communities of the Niger-Delta region.

ICLC President, Dortimi Tawari and Secretary, cDr. Ekanem Inyang, in a petition described many provisions in the proposed bill as preposterous, obnoxious and offend natural justice.

The centre in its petition to the National Assembly said: “Ijaw Community Law Centre calls on your good offices not to pass the National Water Resources Bill as it is.

“We very strongly oppose its present form and recommend a review with wide consultations to incorporate the views of Nigerians especially the riparian and littoral communities of the Niger Delta region.

“Sections 1 (1A, C, E, F), 1(3), 3(2, 3&4) and Section 56 (1) of the proposed Bill, which gives the proposed catchment stakeholder committee a mere advisory role, should be deleted.

“We propose a redrafting of Section 61 to empower the states to issue licenses, being an integral part of the administration, control and management of Integrated Water Resources Management”.

Dortimi added that Sections 62 and 72 should be expunged maintaining that the status of the National Commission in the Water Resources Bill could “easily be misapplied for forcible water and land acquisition by land grabbers.”

He said despite the mention of customary use of water in Section 61(1) in the bill , it subjected all customary rights “to licensing provisions and relevant regulations issued by the Commission”.

Dortimi said the implication of Section 61(2B) is that Niger Delta communities would be required to obtain licenses to access their lakes, farmlands and estuaries.

According to him, the Water Resources Bill is another form of the ” offensive RUGA” policy of the federal government describing it as ” perverse, unnecessary and unjustifiable”.

It said the current bill premised on Decree 101 of 1993 promulgated by General Ibrahim Babangida, is ” a form of retrograde transmogrification into military dictatorship.”

Dortimi said the bill contravened the basic tenets of federalism and the Land Use Act.

He said: “The current Bill viz, federal government taking over the rights and duties of the States via National Water Resources Regulatory Commission is in our view perverse, unnecessary and unjustifiable.

“The Water Resources Bill before the House of Representatives is draconian, anti people, enslaving and should, a fortiori, be rejected forthwith. It should be replaced with appropriate amendments and in a Bill that respects the federal system of governance as was practised under the 1963 Constitution.”

The Chairman of Ibibio Youth Council, Mr. Imoh Okoko, further condemned the bll, saying it was not in the interest of the Southsouth region.

Okoko urged lawmakers advancing the bill to drop the idea as it was capable of worsening the already tensed atmosphere in the country.

He said the bill if passed into law would deprive states in the Southsouth the right to control their jetties and other natural resources in the waters.

He said: “The federal lawmakers should make laws that would economic devolve power to the subnationals instead of trying to emasculate states and local government areas in the country.

“The present situation where there is no true fiscal federalism is bad already. Why embark on a journey you know will not be fair to a particular region.

“We in Ibibio Youth Council, the largest ethnic group in Akwa Ibom state condemn in totality the Water Resources Bill and ask that further legislative deliberations on it should cease”.

Story By: Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt; Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba; Elo Edremoda, Warri; Bassey Anthony, Uyo; Simon Utebor, Yenagoa