The National Assembly has opposed plans to privatise the River Basin Development Authorities of Nigeria.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Water Resources, Senator Lokpobiri Heineken,who spoke on behalf of the Senate, said the Federal Government could not commence the process of privatising the River Basins now.
According to him, the law establishing the RBDAs has to be reviewed before the privatisation process can commence. Heineken spoke to our correspondent after the inauguration of the chairmen and members of the board of directors of River Basins in Abuja recently.
He said, “You can’t privatise without amending the law and I don’t think it is going to happen at this moment. So, I don’t think the Senate will accept the privatisation of the river basins now.”
The Federal Government had stated that there was imminent need for the privatisation of the RBDAs and their assets across the country in order to better achieve the objectives for which they were established,.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, was reported to have stated this while delivering the annual foundation day lecture of t,he Federal University of Technology Akure.
Adesina said since the 12 RBDAs across the country had failed to live up to their objectives under the government management, they should be handed over to the private sector to manage.
He said the RBDAs had performed poorly in the area of supporting agriculture through irrigation, as well as enhancing water supply and power generation.
Adesina was quoted as saying, “This is why we need to privatise the river basins to help ensure effective irrigation systems across the country.
“We launched for the first time ever dry season rice cultivation in 10 states of northern Nigeria, providing them with high quality seeds and fertiliser as well as irrigation systems and this is going to add an estimated 1.1 million metric tonnes of paddy rice, which is a third of what is needed to meet domestic self-sufficiency target by 2015.”
The RBDAs in Nigeria include Upper Benue Basin; the Lake Chad Basin; Benin-Owena Basin, Sokoto-Rima Basin, Sokoto; Hadejia-Jema’are Basin, Kano; Maiduguri; the Yola; the Lower Benue Basin, Makurdi and the Cross River Basin, Calabar.
Others are Osun-Ogun Basin, Abeokuta; Anambra-Imo Basin, Owerri; the Niger Basin, Ilorin; and the Niger Delta Basin, Port Harcourt.
Also commenting on the issue, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Water Resources, Mr. Aliyu Ahman-Pategi, said privatising the river basins would not serve the interest of employees in the organisations.
He noted that members of the House of Representatives were not considering privatisation as an option to boost the performance of the basins.
Ahman-Pategi added that with the inauguration of chairmen and members of board of directors for the RBDAs, the operations of the basins would be enhanced.
He said, “The National Assembly is not in support of the privatisation of river basins in Nigeria. This is because one of the reasons for establishing river basins is to create jobs, but if they are privatised, the problem of unemployment may not be adequately addressed.”
The Punch