Members of the House of Representatives have withdrawn from discussing the controversial Water Resources Bill as members clash over the bill.
Various legal and procedural issues on the bill were raised by members of the house who are opposing the bill. Most Rep members who opposed the bill were from the south and the PDP.
Efforts by the northern members to save the bill were abortive as arguments by the PDP members and other opponents of the bill made the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, to order the withdrawal and reintroduction of the bill.
The Speaker said the controversial bill should be properly gazette according to the rules of the House.
The clash of the bill began when a point of order was raised by a first-time member from Benue State, Mr. Bem Mzondu, under Order 6 Rule 1(20) and (3). He argued that his legislative privilege was tampered with as the bill did not follow the due process and that he was not serving a copy.
Mzondu, a member of the PDP, recalled on Tuesday that on July 23, 2020, the House revisited the bill without following the standing rules. He said, “I was deprived of my legislative privileges of sighting a gazetted copy of the National Water Resources Bill.”
The lawmaker justified his denial from being part of the legislative process on the bill, saying that the rule says new bills must be gazetted for consideration and the old ones abandoned by the previous Assembly must be re-gazetted, he could not see any document that shows these had been done.
He said, “This same water bill was listed as National Water Resources Bill 2020 but it was not treated as such. A bill that emanated in 2020 should have gone through first reading, second reading and third reading before passage. It was not treated as such and this is a denial of my representation of my people.”
Mzondu cited Order 12 Rule 16, 17, and 18 which stated that the bill “has no life” until it is treated as an old bill. He added that a bill should either be gazetted or its copy be made available to members. According to him, Rules 16 and 17 are about movement of bill from session to session while 18 is about assembly to assembly, which means that the bill must be re-gazetted, as it is from the previous Assembly.
He said, “I, therefore, rely on Order 8 Rule 8 that, that bill be rescinded and expunged from our records or be made to go through the necessary considerations that a bill will have to go through before it is passed, particularly considering the mood of the nation. We are here to serve the Nigerian people and not to serve ourselves. If Nigerians do not desire a bill, we put it at rest or up for public debate and scrutiny for them to have their inputs.
“My rights have been infringed upon and as I stand, I cannot go to my constituency because I need to show them copies of this bill, and I have gone through all our journals but it is not there. I, therefore, move that this bill be rescinded, expunged or begin its journey from the start.
