BY MOSES IDIKA
The 9th National Assembly since its inauguration in June 2019 has come to represent what the Peoples’ parliament should never be.
Since the SENATOR AHMAD LAWAN (President of the Senate) and HON. FEMI GBAJABIAMILA (Speaker, House of Representatives) led National Assembly came on board it has created a deep-seated suspicion in the minds of Nigerians.
Its predecessor assembly, the 8th National Assembly led by the duo of Senator BUKOLA SARAKI and HON. YAKUBU DOGARA, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively was seen by Nigerians as a pro-people parliament, while the executive arm of the government saw the 8th Assembly as an albatross and a clog in its wheel.
All manner of campaigns were executed against the 8th Assembly all to cower the leadership of the parliament which stood its ground until the very last minute of its life span.
The 8th Assembly succeeded because the people of Nigeria owned its actions despite the many distractions and campaigns of calumny orchestrated against it by the forces that sought to enslave Nigerians.
In June 2019 after the emergence of the of the duo of LAWAN and GBAJABIAMILA, the Presidency led by PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI expressed happiness that it finally got a “leadership of the National Assembly that was ready to “work” with it for Nigerians.
In their inaugural speeches, both LAWAN and GBAJABIAMILA expressed their willingness to “work” with the executive, allegedly in the interest of Nigerians.
However, barely 15 months into the tenure of the 9th National Assembly it had courted more controversies than all the assemblies before it since Nigeria returned democratic rule in 1999.
The ominous sign that the 9th National Assembly may have vowed to “deal” with Nigerians emerged when two members of the Senate from Niger State SENATORS MOHAMMED SANI MUSA (APC, Niger East) and ABDULAHI ALIYU SABI (APC, Niger North) on November 5, and 12th 2019 sponsored the Anti-social Media Bill and Hate Speech Commission Bill respectively.
The two bills titled “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019” and “National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill 2019” were primarily targeted at ensuring that Nigerians lose their rights to free speech.
Both bills suffered heavy blows at the public hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters chaired by Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central).
Just as the National Assembly was recovering from the opprobrium generated by the two bills above, the Senate once again took the Nigerian public to the cleaners when on Thursday March 4, 2020 it hurriedly approved a $23 billion loan request sent to it by PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI thereby plunging unborn Nigerians into yet another debilitating debt cycle.
Despite the public outcry and warnings from various financial and economic experts, the 9th National Assembly has since approved another set of borrowings totalling over $5billion dollars for PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI.
In fact, when public outcry seem to have overwhelmed the National Assembly, the Minister of Transportation, MR. ROTIMI AMAECHI warned the lawmakers not to disrupt the Federal Government’s borrowing spree by heeding the opposition of the Nigeria Public.
While the Nigerian public was still reeling from the reality of Nigeria’s new debtor status, the House of Representatives surreptitiously smuggled in the “Control of Infectious Disease Bill 2020” by no less a person than the Speaker of the House of Representatives, HON. FEMI GBAJABIAMILA (APC, Lagos) and two other lawmakers, HON. PASCAL OBI (APC Imo) and HON. TANKO SUNNU (APC, Kebbi)
The Control of Infectious Disease Bill which a former member of the National Assembly, SENATOR DINO MELAYE described as “a satanic bill” primarily sought to undermine the rights of Nigerians as enshrined in the constitution and create a modern day Leviathan that could appropriate properties of Nigerians by mere pronouncements of either the Minister of Health or the Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The bill also sought to give the two afore mentioned government officials to declare any Nigerian “INFECTIOUS” without even the benefit or medical diagnosis!
To buttress the desperation of the 9TH National Assembly to “conquer” Nigerians, the House of Representatives rushed the bill through first and second readings and even tried to bypass public hearing on the bill.
Enter the National Water Resources Bill 2020
On Tuesday July 21, 2020 the House of Representatives once again in its now usual manner surreptitiously smuggled in the controversial “National Water Resources Bill, 2020, (HB. 921), into the Assembly’s agenda.
The re-introduction of the bill which was rejected by the 8th Senate was well planned in such a way that the public would not notice on time as to protest against it.
The House came under its Order 12, (rule 18) which provides that “Legislative business of the House by a Committee of the House which remain undetermined at the end of the Assembly shall be resumed and proceeded with the next Assembly in the same manner as if the tenure of the Assembly had not come to an end, if the House resolves in the affirmative that such bills, upon being re-gazetted , be reconsidered in the committee of the whole without being commenced de-novo.”
To this end the 9th House of Representatives deliberately avoided open debate of the controversial bill by ensuring that the bill was not opened to public scrutiny.
Many Nigerians have expressed concern on the re-introduced bill with many asking “what has changed” in the bill because the House has in no way cleared doubts and fears of Nigerians on the “grey areas” that occasioned the death of the bill in the 8th National Assembly.
According to HON FEMI GBAJABIAMILA in his lead debate on the water resources bill in the 8th National Assembly, the agencies of the government that will be established by the water resources bill will undertake the following responsibilities on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria.
-The abstraction of surface water and groundwater for diversion, pumping, storage or use on a commercial scale
-Issue licenses for the construction of boreholes for commercial purposes;
–Construction and operation of hydraulic structures for rivers, dams, water intake barrages, groynes, bed and bank stabilization dykes, polders and wells
-Public and private irrigation and drainage systems
-Also issue licenses for diversion or impoundment of water for the purposes of mining and discharge of waste water from mining into any water course
-Discharging industrial or agricultural waste or wastewater into a water body through a pipe, canal, sewer, sea outfall or other conduit according to environmental standard
-Regulation of water which contains waste any industrial or power generation processes.
-Sand dredging, rock blasting and rock removal in Rivers as related to water sources and channels listed in the First schedule to this Bill which contains water bodies affecting more than one state pursuant to item 64 of the Exclusive Legislative list in Part 1 of the Second Schedule to the 1999 constitution
The above objectives of the National Water Resources Bill, 2020 is at the crux of the opposition to the bill by many Nigerians.
In summary, the bill seeks to abrogate the rights of Nigerians to water. It means that federal government of Nigeria through the 9th National Assembly is working to convert water to “Nigeria’s new crude oil” whereby Nigerians irrespective of where they may be will have to buy water from the federal government before they may drink, wash, bath or irrigate their farms.
Reactions so from Nigerians
Many Nigerian have risen against the bill which according to them seeks to further shrink the freedom of Nigerians and constrict the democratic space.
The Executive Director, African Network for the Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), REV DAVID UGOLO while speaking with Vanguard newspaper said that the move by the House of Representatives was a simple attempt by “the Nigerian elite to continue to look for ways to sustain their access to rent collection” as they foresee a bleak future crude oil.
“It is about elites that have poor backgrounds, that live on rent. Nigerian elites that live on oil wealth know that the amount of rent coming from oil is increasingly decreasing and there is a need to explore other options.
“And water provides another opportunity to sustain their rent collection. It is not just the North, it is the Nigerian elite,” UGOLO contended.
On his part, the lawmaker representing Benue North East in the National Assembly and former Governor Benue State, SENATOR GABRIEL SUSWAM said the bill will not succeed because it is “anti people.”
“Though the bill is yet to come before the red chamber of the National Assembly, it will die on arrival in whatever form it comes.
“It is anti people.
“For me I cannot sit down as representative of the people and allow the federal government takeover the waters of the people.
“The Land Use Act of 1978 clearly states that all lands in a state belong to the state governor and it would require a constitutional review for this to happen,” SUSWAM said.
Also, the Senate Minority leader, SENATOR ENYINNAYA ABARIBE has assured that the bill will be “rejected” again whenever it resurfaces in the Senate.
It is indeed ironic that Nigeria where less than 20% of its population has access to portable water is planning to take away the rights of the people to provide water for themselves when the government has woefully failed over the years to provide water for its millions of citizens.
It is also rather scary that the National Assembly which touts itself as the peoples parliament has become a willing tool in the hands of those who seek to “conquer and cage” the people of Nigeria in attempt to sustain their stranglehold on the resources of the country.
It is my considered opinion that the 9th National Assembly should quickly purge itself from the “rubber stamp” mentality and be on the side of the people of Nigeria because posterity beacons.
