Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Thursday decried Federal Government’s insistence to pass the repeatedly rejected Waterways Resources Bill into law, describing the move as another instance of how the government was often hell-bent on going ahead with what the majority of Nigerians frowned at while neglecting the ones Nigerians yearn for.
Afenifere gave this position in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi while reacting to the latest statement by the Minister of Water Resources, Mallam Suleiman Adamu.
The minister had while featured at an interview programme by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week in Abuja, said, among other things, that the Bill provides for professional and efficient management of all surface and groundwater for the use of all Nigerians, adding that it would also ensure that the nation’s water resources were protected, used, developed, conserved, and managed in a sustainable manner for the benefits of all Nigerians.
The minister vowed that his Ministry would continue to pursue the passage of the Bill into law because it was the responsible government to do so, describing those who were opposing the passage of the bill in its present form as ‘hysterical.’
The pan- Yoruba group, in its reaction, said “the minister’s assertion smacks of arrogance, disdain for the people of Nigeria and insensitivity to the things that are of immediate concern to Nigerians.”
The group said it was unbecoming of a public officer to describe Nigerians as hysterical simply because they expressed their displeasure with a government policy.
“Secondly, given the fact that the attempts to pass this Bill have been consistently rejected since its first mention in 2020 during the 8th National Assembly, it ought to dawn on the Federal Government that Nigerians are not ready to accept the Bill in its present form.
“Rather than acting as though it can force its plan down the throat of the people, what the government ought to do is to listen to the people and adjust in accordance with the aspirations and feelings of the people.
“But what have we been experiencing in the hands of government officials, especially those serving under President Muhammadu Buhari? Disdain, lack of respect for the people, actions depicting the government as one of conquest rather than an elected one,” Afenifere stated.
Speaking further, Afenifere said going by the reasons offered as to the effect that “the Bill provides for professional and efficient management of all surface and groundwater for the use of all Nigerians,” the minister was only trying to disguise the real intention behind the insistence.
The group, while noting that the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is directly under the federal government, queried: “How efficiently has it utilized the ‘surface and ground water’ of that territory for the benefit of Abuja residents?
“Beyond that, the Minister should inform Nigerians of instances of where states’ governments – who have control over the lands in their respective areas – denied the Federal Government the opportunity to use land or water resources for the genuine benefit of the people in the said area?” the group further queried.
Afenifere spokesperson stated that rather than states impeding the Federal Government in this respect, it was the latter that was impeding the state governments, saying that a typical example that can readily be cited is Ikere Gorge Dam near Iseyin in Oyo State.
“For about 40 years now, the Federal Government had been on it. All entreaties by the people of Oke Ogun and Oyo State government to get the government to complete the project had fallen on deaf ears.
“Even the government of the then Western State and later Oyo State made efforts to do it, yet the Federal Government denied them. The people and the nation have been the loser for it,” he said.
“The Ikere Gorge Dam project was to provide electricity, irrigation, and aquatic agriculture, among others for about four states in the South West of the country and contribute electricity to the national grid.
“What we are saying is that the Federal Government has not demonstrated good faith and deed in areas within its control. So how can we trust it with those under the purvey of state and local governments?” he further queried.
This was just as he recalled the comment by a pan-Yoruba group comment on this same issue on July 22, 2022, asserting that the real intention of the Federal Government was to have littoral lands available for pastoralists for whom it failed to secure lands under the rejected RUGA and its failed attempt to impose the Indigene-ship law on the people.
According to Ajayi, what made the present insistence by the minister to be objectionable was the hypocrisy in terms of the false impression he wanted to create to wit: that the Buhari government was committed to serving the best interest of the people.
“Were the present administration truly committed to the best interest of the majority of Nigerians, issues that would be of major concern to it would be the insecurity that has made life unbearable for a lot of people, collapsing economy that has made nonsense of the people’s welfare and the ignoble state of social and infrastructural facilities in the country.
“The government’s resorting to creating rival bodies instead of addressing the issues raised by the Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) is a clear instance of how this administration is acting as though it did not derive its mandate from the people.
“It is only in a situation where a people are being governed in a hegemonic, conquered manner that this type of treatment operates,” the Afenifere chieftain stated.
“In addition to advising President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to forget the Waterways Bill, for now, we urge it to set the machinery in motion for the return of the country to true Federalism as that would solve most of the problems that appear to be intractable in the country presently,” he added.
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