There are strong indications that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and other related legislative frameworks on the oil sector, which are before the National Assembly, will continue to suffer further delays, BusinessDay investigations reveal.
This is because the 21-member Ad-hoc Committee inaugurated by the leadership of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 14th June, 2017 pursuant to Order 12(5) of the Standing Rule, has not yet convened an inaugural meeting, a member of the Ad-hoc committee informed our correspondent at the weekend.
Members of the Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Ado Doguwa (APC-Kano) are: Victor Nwokolo, deputy chairman; Joseph Akinlaja, Frederick Agbedi; Kehinde Odeneye; Ahmed Safana; Musa Adar; Blessing Nsiegbe; Mohammed Sheriff; Olajide Olatunbosun; Pwajok Gyang; Shehu Garba; Johnson Oghuma; Henry Nwawuba; Nnenna Ukeje; Talatu Solomon; Anayo Nnebe; Sunday Karimi; Lawal Abubakar; Nicholas Ossai and Orker-Jev Emmanuel.
The three bills which scaled through second reading and were referred to the Ad-hoc Committee are: A bill for an Act to provide for the governance and institutional framework for the petroleum industry and to establish a fiscal framework that encourages further investment in the petroleum industry, whilst increasing accruable revenues to the Federal Government of Nigeria and for other related matters.
The second bill is for an Act to provide for a framework relating to petroleum producing host community’s participation, cost and benefit sharing amongst the government, petroleum exploration companies and petroleum host communities and for other related matters.
The third is a bill and memorandum on legal and regulatory framework, institutions and regulatory authorities for the Nigerian petroleum industry, to establish guidelines for the operations of the upstream and downstream sectors and to provide for the establishment of the legal and regulatory framework and authorities. It also seeks to provide guidelines for the operations of the upstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian petroleum industry and for other connected purposes.
Our source, who pleaded anonymity, told BusinessDay that “the onus is on the chairman of the Adhoc Committee to convene the meeting and give the scope of work, but as I’m talking to you, we are awaiting communication from him.
“But hopefully, he will do that after resumption, anytime from the 28th September,” he said.
Worried by the development, a cross section of concerned Nigerians, including Civil Society Organisations, have expressed displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of the Executive and Legislative arms of government towards addressing the challenges bedeviling the sector which serves as mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
Vivian Bellonwu-Okafor, Head Social Action, who spoke on behalf of the CSOs working with the host communities in the oil producing region, decried the attitude of the previous and present administrations, to the passage of such economic bills that will boost foreign direct investment and technology transfer into the country and create huge employments for Nigerians.
“The PIB has been floating aimlessly in the National Assembly chambers with no clear direction or action on the Bill.
“The way it is today, the PIB may again just suffer the same fate as it has been subjected to over the years and indeed in the past administrations.
“Presently and with almost two years gone in the life of the present government, no concrete action has been taken to either pass the bill or sign it into law, beyond the balkanisation for purely commercial interests.
“The fate which the PIB has suffered over the past decade is indeed appalling,” our source observed.
While frowning at the depreciating vigour on the consideration of the legislative frameworks, she tasked the leadership of both the Senate and House of Representatives to put national interest above any other interests.
“But with some promising commitments made by the leadership of the House of Representatives at the inception of the 8th legislature, hopes were indeed high that this legislature would act assiduously on the bill, and by so doing, greatly address the pains and long suffering of the people of the oil bearing region.
“As it stands today, this great hope is fast fizzling out with the Senate and House of Reps yet to carry out any holistic action on the PIB. Time has come and is indeed overdue for the National Assembly to in the spirit of patriotism, rise above all entrenched and primordial sentiments and move assiduously to see to the passage of a PIB that holistically addresses, fiscal, environmental, community and regulatory issues adequately.
“By so doing, the nation will look to harness meaningful benefits from its oil and gas resources, while upholding and protecting the rights of local communities in host areas,” Bellonwu-Okafor stressed.
Isaac Osuoka, Director, Social Action, had during a briefing held in June 2017, called for holistic reform in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and the adoption of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 which recognised lives of communities and individuals as sacred.
Section 7(1c) of the Nigerian Minerals Act, provides that: “the holders of a mining lease shall not commence any development work or extraction of mineral resources on the mining lease area, until after the conclusion of a community development agreement approved by the Mines Environment Complaint Department.”
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
