THE NATION
The Supreme Court has held that the control of activities on the nation’s inland waterways, including levying and licensing operators in the sector belongs solely to the federal government.
The apex court, in a judgment on Friday, January 5, held that it was wrong for states to seek to control the sector and impose levies on businesses operating in the nation’s inland waterways.
The Supreme Court held that existing laws give exclusive control of activities in the nation’s inland waterways to the FG through its agencies – the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Nigerian Maritime Standard and Safety Agency (NMSSA) – and no other tier of government.
The judgment, authored by Justice John Okoro, but read on Friday by Justice Emmanuel Agim, was on the appeal marked: SC/CV/17/2018, filed by the NIWA, NMSSA, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, and the Minister of Transport.
Respondents to the appeal were the Lagos State Waterways, the state’s Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, the state’s Attorney General, Governor of Lagos State, the Incorporated Trustees of Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transportation of Nigeria (ATBOWTN) and the Incorporated Trustees of Dredgers Association of Nigeria (DAN).
The appeal filed in 2018 was prosecuted for the appellants by a team of lawyers led by Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who was recently appointed as the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.
The Supreme Court agreed with the appellants’ argument that NIWA is the only agency saddled with the responsibility to levy, impose and charge rates utilization along the declared waters of Nigerian Inland Waterways.
It added that NIWA is the rightful and legal agency of the Federal Government with the powers to exclusively manage, direct and control all activities on the navigable waters and its right of ways throughout the country for the purpose of inland navigation, pursuant to Sections 8 and 9 of NIWA Act.
The apex court equally agreed with the appellants that the activities of the Lagos government and its agencies constitute a flagrant usurpation and an illegal encroachment on the statutory functions of NIWA because the waterways of Lagos State, among others in Nigeria, fall under the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part 1 of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.
It held that it is only the Federal Government, through the National Assembly that can validly legislate on Maritime Shipping and Navigation, adding that the power to legislate on any subject in the Exclusive Legislative List does not lie with the Lagos State Government.
The appellants had also argued that the activities of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) created by the Lagos Government, though the enactment of LASWA Law No. 14 of 2008 (LASWA 2008) by the state’s House of Assembly, to regulate, develop and manage all aspects of the waterways in Lagos State is unconstitutional.
