By Joshua Yousouph
Following a recent judgment by the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, that state government has no power over control and management of inland waterways in the country, the Lagos Statement Waterways Authority (LASWA), has vowed not to obey the court judgement ruled in favour of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) that a state government has no authority to legislate on and enforce compliance of its legislation on the use of inland waters in Nigeria.
LASWA, while disagreeing with the court judgment stated that the inland waterways within Lagos State are not and cannot by any stretch of interpretation be covered by any item on the Exclusive Legislative List under Part 1 to the Second Schedule of the Constitution.
Recalled that there has been a protracted face-off between the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and LASWA over control of the inland waterways over the years, however, following the decision of the federal high court, presided over by, Hon. Justice I.S Mark, he ordered that the use, management and control of inland waterways in Nigeria is the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government.
The Justice also affirmed that it is exclusively within the control of NIWA by virtue of the constitution and the Act establishing NIWA by the National Assembly.
The judge gave the order in the Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/142/2022 between Bright Waters Energy Limited as plaintiff and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, River State, the Commissioner of Environment, Rivers State and Petroleum Financial Corporate (PFC) as defendants.
Reacting to the judgment, the General Manager of LASWA, Mr Damilola Emmanuel in a chat with our correspondent last week maintained that LASWA will stick to the Lagos state Ministry of Justice ruling that states that the inland waterways within Lagos State are not and cannot by any stretch of interpretation be covered by any item on the Exclusive Legislative List under Part 1 to the Second Schedule of the Constitution.
He noted that the Lagos State Ministry of Justice have wadded in and addressed the discrepancies involved in the power tussle on who to legislate and enforce compliance of its legislation on Lagos waterways.
Emmanuel, according to a press statement by the ministry of justice sent to our correspondent noted that in a judgment delivered on the 17th of July, 2017 the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division held that the inland waterways within Lagos State are not and cannot by any stretch of interpretation be covered by any item on the Exclusive Legislative List under Part 1 to the Second Schedule of the Constitution.
The Judgment in CA/S/886/2014 between Lagos State Waterways Authority & 3 others Vs. the Incorporated Trustees of Association of Boat Operators & Water Transportation in Nigeria & 5 others also held that the absence of Lagos State intra-waterways in the Exclusive List and Concurrent List makes it automatically a Residuary Item that falls within the Legislative competence of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Hence, the Lagos State House of Assembly is competent to make Laws in respect of the Intra-inland waterways in Lagos State except the Inter-state waterway declared as International or Inter-state waterway under item 5 in the Second Schedule to the National Inland Waterways Act CAP N47 LFN 2004.
The statement also noted that the NIWA who was dissatisfied with the above judgment of the Court of Appeal appealed to the Supreme Court where the matter is now pending.
Speaking to Shipping Position Daily on the ruling, National Public Relations Officer of Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN), Chief Raymond Gold noted that LASWA was set up by Gov. Babatunde Fashola in Lagos due to some loopholes in legislation.
Gold noted that there are some areas where boat operators in Lagos state face difficulties on who to pay jetty fees and other levies to. According to him, this conflict to a very large extent is affecting stakeholders in the water transportation sector in the state.
He however advised that the laws should be obeyed but the focus should be on the way forward on what will benefit the citizens and the country at large.
In his words “To me, Laws should be obeyed. When a law defines how something should be done, the citizens have no option but to obey the law. The truth of the matter is that, in our country we have different areas when it comes to legislation. We have the residual, concurrent and the exclusive. We have three different authorities to make laws. We have those that are purely for the States and those that are exclusive to the Federal Government.
“LASWA was set up during Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s era and Fashola is a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Before Fashola could do that he saw some loopholes. But by the end of the day, what are we really after? Why the competition.
“To me all parties must come together and look for a way out. Is there any benefit to the federal side if it is out rightly exclusive?
“Is there any special benefit to the state side if it is out rightly residual? At the end of the day when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. This is because this conflict is to a very large extent affecting stakeholders. There are areas where our members will have to pay jetty fees and we have difficulties in who we pay to. The association had to come in and identify who gets what and let these agencies have what is due to them in a seamless manner.
“In conclusion I will say let the laws be obeyed? Don’t forget that laws are made for man and not man for laws. Our focus should be on what is the right thing for our country and our citizens. As for the different judgments, we cannot say either of the judgments is not valid. But at the end of the day when these judgments are conflicting what should be the way forward that will benefit the citizen and country” Gold concluded.
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