Finally, the report of the Ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been laid before the House of Representatives.
Ado Doguwa, Chairman of the Committee laid the report during the first legislative day after resumption from Christmas/New Year recess.
Details of the Committee’s recommendations will be considered by the House at a latter date to be announced by the leadership of the House.
Recall that three bills on new governance and regulatory framework for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector as well as the bill which seeks to provide for a framework relating to Petroleum Producing Host Community’s participation, cost and benefit sharing among government, petroleum exploration companies and host communities and for related matters scaled through second reading on the 16th June, 2017 on the floor of the House.
Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum had during the investigate hearing on fuel scarcity, held at the instance of the joint Senate and House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) harped on the importance of timely passage of the PIB, in order to address myriad of challenges facing the industry.
The sector which has been bedeviled with corruption and irregularities, is responsible for 80 percent of government’s revenues shared by Federal, States and Local Governments; 90 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and 30 percent of the GDP of the most populated African country.
In his lead debate on a “bill for an Act for 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,” Victor Nwokolo, chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) expressed optimism that unbundling Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will boost the revenue, employment generation and investment into the sector.
According to Nwokolo, during the second reading debate of the bill, said Nigeria is endowed with about 37 billion barrels of crude oil and 187 trillion cubic feet (33bln boe) of gas and currently rated as the sixth largest exporter of crude among OPEC members and seventh largest gas reserve in the world.
For Nigeria to maximize the huge reserve base/resource endowment as a major player among its peers, the lawmaker expressed optimism that the new legal framework will help to address issues bothering on extant obsolete legal framework, institutional decay/inefficient regulatory entities, decline revenue, Niger Delta crisis, among others.
Speaking earlier, Speaker Yakubu Dogara had expressed displeasure over series of avoidable crisis facing the country.
“We embarked on the recess at a period of great hardship faced by our constituents. The unending and shameful story of fuel shortage reached an unbearable level as to make traveling and other economic activities almost impossible.
“We expected that with the legislative cooperation given to the Executive arm, to effect an increase in the fuel price from N87 per litre to N145, and based on their assurances, incidents of fuel scarcity would be a thing of the past. We were also assured that fuel subsidy had come to an end.
“From recent developments on this subject, except the Executive adduces compelling reasons why the reverse is the case, we will be justified in feeling betrayed.
“As a parliament, we must unravel the causes of this scarcity and the alleged re-introduction of fuel subsidy. I charge our relevant Committees to get to the root of these issues through the instrumentality of oversight to enable the House take an informed position on this totally undeserving precarious situation that our already overburdened citizens are subjected to. This has to be done with minimal delay,” Dogara said.
While speaking on the 2018 budget proposal before the Standing Committees, Dogara solicited for the cooperation of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“As you are aware, the 2018 Appropriation Bill is before us for legislative action. We have promised to do our utmost to pass it expeditiously. We should keep our word.
“However, this can only be possible if the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) cooperate effectively with relevant Committees of the House by providing the required information as may be requested of them. I understand, from reports reaching me, that there is lack of cooperation from some of the MDAs, and I call on the Heads of all MDAs to expedite action on demands from our Committees.
“We should all in a constructive manner, resolve any problems that may hinder the smooth and early passage of the Budget. The deadline we have given to ourselves must remain sacrosanct.
“As we enter 2018, political activities will pick up. We must however remember that we were elected to represent the people for a four year term. The work is not finished. This is the time to conclude many outstanding legislative measures pending before us.
“Dear Colleagues, the economy, must remain the central focus of our legislative activities in 2018, in order to consolidate Nigeria’s exit from economic recession. To this end, we must prioritise high economic impact Bills and pass them before the onset of political activities. The Committee on Rules and Business is hereby charged to schedule the consideration of these bills at the earliest possible time.
“The Electoral Act Amendment process must be speedily concluded, this first quarter. Same with Constitutional alteration process, especially those on electoral matters. The Rules of the game must be clear to the actors early enough before the game begins. This is absolutely necessary in order to improve on the standards we set in the last general elections,” Dogara said.
