We have gone beyond 2,500 Signatures. Thank you everyone, Change.org and the Yoruba nation. Together we can defeat this usurpation of State powers and acquisition of our ancestral lands.
OUR CASE
The National Water Resources Bill (NWRB), before the NASS in content promotes unitary system of government, concentrates power in the Federal government to the detriment of the component parts especially the Southern and Middle Belt States. This is an aberration of the federal system of government and the Land Use Act of 1978 which vests all LANDS within a State in the Governor. Section 1 (the Objectives) of the Bill, subsection 1 and specifically subsection 3, directly usurp the powers of the State as provided in Section 20 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 as amended, It is the responsibility of the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the WATER, air and LAND, forest and wild life of Nigeria. We submit therefore, the Bill can not be passed in the present title without first amending the Constitution.
Apart from our unique cultural identities, the Niger Delta region from up of the western, central and eastern wetlands, and fresh-water swamps, flood plains, upper reaches of the River Niger and coastal lands of the Niger Delta abutting the Atlantic Ocean is ancestral homeland to indigenous nationalities. The Niger Delta is synonymous with water. Water is not only life, it is the source of our livelihood. Therefore, any attempt by legislation to acquire its surface Water, that is "natural or man made body of water, flowing or standing on the surface of the land including rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, lagoons, wetlands, swamps, creeks, Delta and estuaries" and further described in Source 4 of the First Schedule states as “The River Niger from the confluence thereof and of the Benue River, including the Delta of River Niger and all water tributaries or influent thereto or different therefrom" as is been proposed is provocative and a call for anarchy. This is an attempt to expropriate our ancestral lands and waters resources and shall be resisted.