Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, yesterday said the insistence of the federal government to pass the repeatedly rejected Waterways Resources Bill into law posits another instance of how the apex government is often hell-bent on going ahead with imposing minority views on the majority of the people.
The organisation noted the government always imposed a minority view while it rejected the majority of Nigerians` view and frowned at the yearnings of Nigerians.
The organisation’s position in a press statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Jare Ajayi, while reacting to the latest statement by the minister of Water Resources, Mallam Suleiman Adamu, when he featured at an interview programme organised by the News Agency of Nigeria last week in Abuja, pointed out that the minister said, among other things, that the Bill provides for professional and efficient management of all surface and ground water for the use of all Nigerians.
Afenifere quoted the minister as saying that it will also ensure that the nation’s water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved and managed in a sustainable manner for the benefits of all Nigerians.
Also that he vowed that his ministry would continue to pursue the passage of the Bill into law.
Taking a swipe at the minister’s position, Afenifere 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 organisation said it is unbecoming of a public officer to describe Nigerians as hysterical simply because they express their displeasure to a government policy.
“Second, 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 we have been experiencing in the hands of government officials, especially those serving under President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is disdain, lack of respect for the people, actions depicting the government as one of conquest rather than an elected one, “Afenifere said.
On the reasons adduced for insisting on the bill, the organisation submitted that the minister was only trying to disguise the real intention behind the insistence.
They noted that the minister had said that, “The Bill provides for professional and efficient management of all surface and ground water for the use of all Nigerians.”
Dismissing the minister’s position, Afenifere argued that the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is directly under the federal government, adding that, “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 their 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”.
Afenifere added that rather than states impeding the federal government in this respect, “it is the latter that is impeding the state governments. 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.’’
