From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The United Indigenous People of Africa (UNIPA), which is a global self-determination group for indigenous nationalities on the continent, has faulted the newly re-introduced Water Resources Bill, seeking to place the control of all resources accrued through water on the surface or in the ground under the control of the Federal Government.
The Co-Convener of the group, Ms. Jean May, in an electronic statement she sent from New York, and obtained by Saturday Sun, described the bill as a mockery of the country’s already quasi-federal principles, an attack on universal federalism, and an exhibition of wickedness on the part of the Nigerian government. The UNIPA has chapters in 28 African countries and United Kingdom, and also has its headquarters in the United States.
According to her, the bill would further weaken the states and local government areas of Nigeria that have purportedly gone bankrupt due to usurpation of their functions by the Federal Government, if it becomes law. The moves by the central government to take over the control of all water banks, including its streams and all resources therein, she said, is an attempt to completely take over assets of the already oppressed indigenous people in the country.