Ifeanyi Izeze<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is like a demon; that PIB thing,
\nthere are people both inside and outside the country, who would work
\nagainst it, but it is going to take the strength of our patriotism to
\npass it and; by the grace of God, when we resume, we will start work on
\nthe Petroleum Industry Bill.\u201d This affirmation by the Senate President
\nAhmad Lawan is both funny and at the same time commendable though with
\nserious caveat.<\/p>\n
When he said that there are forces within and outside the country
\nworking desperately to frustrate the consideration and passage of the
\nPetroleum Industry Bill presently before the National Assembly, he was
\nvery correct but by half. The other half he failed to say was that the
\nforces within which are all Nigerians had been a bigger stumbling block
\nsimply because of lack of the will-power to be honest to take unfeigned
\nunbiased and patriotic stance.<\/p>\n
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, over 80 percent of the
\nidentified \u201cforces within\u201d are mainly domiciled in the two chambers
\nof the National Assembly and being prompted by the remaining less that
\n10 percent tribal warlords and self- appointed sectional thinkers who
\nfeel that restructuring the legal framework guiding the oil industry
\nwould be detrimental to the interests of their region.<\/p>\n
The forces outside the country are well known- the foreign transnational
\noil companies that prefer the existing negatively skewed policies that
\ncriminally favour only the operators.<\/p>\n
Agreed that forces outside the country with interests in our oil and gas
\nbusiness have covertly worked against any reworking of the legal
\nframework guiding the sector, it is a shame that for over 20 years, our
\nNational Assembly still grapples with a legislation to bring better
\ngovernance and highly needed transparency to Nigeria\u2019s most important
\neconomic sector.<\/p>\n
The main purpose of the PIB as concieved is to make the\u00a0 nation\u2019s oil
\nsector investment-friendly for both local and foreign investors with
\nattendant economic gains for the country in terms of enhanced revenues.
\nThrough it, the required competitive environment will be provided for
\nbusinesses to grow and investors will make their gains as well as
\nNigerians getting value for their monies and government getting more
\nrevenues.<\/p>\n
There have been failed attempts by previous Assemblies to pass this
\npiece (s) of legislation. In the case of the Seventh Assembly, the lower
\nlegislative chamber passed the bill but the senate failed to concur with
\nit.<\/p>\n
The National Assembly in its wisdom believed that the Petroleum Industry
\nBill (PIB) as originally packaged was too ambiguous and decided to break
\nthe document into bits and pieces to make it more manageable and
\neffective. And apart from content issues with prior versions, one of the
\nmajor drawbacks to passage as claimed by the lawmakers was the bogus
\npackaging as a single legal instrument.<\/p>\n
The Eight Assembly subsequently broke the PIB into five components and
\npassed the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB) but President
\nMuhammadu Buhari refused to sign the bill, citing some constitutional
\nreasons.<\/p>\n
The PIB is one heck of a legislation that not only Nigeria but the
\nentire world is waiting \u2013 because that will completely change the
\nNigerian economy. Money will start flowing.<\/p>\n
As a result, the original document was split into four (4) smaller bits:
\nPetroleum Industry (Governance and Institutional Framework) Bill;
\nPetroleum Industry (Fiscal framework and Reforms) Bill; Petroleum
\nIndustry (Upstream Administration Reforms) Bill;\u00a0 Petroleum Industry
\n(Downstream Administration Reforms) Bill and; Petroleum Industry
\n(Revenue Allocation and Management Reforms) Bill.<\/p>\n
Listening to the Senate President, someone would assume that his 9th
\nSenate was passing the totality of the PIB document into law. No, this
\nis not it. He was only talking about the PIGB which is only one of the
\nfive pieces of legislation that emerged from the split of the original
\ndocument.<\/p>\n
Is anybody still pretending not to know that one of the major challenges
\nfacing the petroleum industry in this country is host community and
\nNiger Delta issues? How do you then reconcile the fact that in the five
\nresultant pieces of the original PIB, no single mention was specifically
\nmade of the \u201cHost Community Fund\u201d as initially agreed though it is
\nassumed that the fourth bill (Revenue Allocation and Management Bill)
\nmay address issues of the funds for the development of oil producing
\ncommunities?<\/p>\n
Curiously also, the perceived mischief in all these is that, the Revenue
\nAllocation and Management Bill which is believed should address issues
\nof the oil producing host communities fund was either by omission or
\ndeliberate mischief placed as the last of the bits of documents to be
\ndiscussed by the Senate. And whether they are right or wrong, some
\nconcerned people of the Niger Delta are believing that the logic is to
\nserve the controversial consideration of the interests of oil field
\ncommunities last with the hope that the hurdle will never be reached
\nwithin the life of this government or that the controversy would have
\ndied of its own accord by such a time.<\/p>\n
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, the Niger Delta people are
\nalready seeing the actions of the National Assembly as a calculated move
\naimed at making laws for the smooth governance of exploitation and
\nexploration of the abundant oil reserve within the region without any
\nconsideration of the interests of host communities that have been
\ncriminally battered by years of deliberate marginalisation and neglect
\nby the federal government in addition to the devastating effects of the
\ncontinued irresponsible operational practices of the oil companies.<\/p>\n
Though it may be wrong to believe that prioritising and singling out of
\nthe PIGB to be passed first was a calculated move aimed at making laws
\nfor the smooth governance of exploitation and exploration of the Niger
\nDelta region against the interest of the people, as affirmed by
\nconcerned interest groups, the National Assembly should know, if they
\nwant to be sincere to themselves, that to calm frayed nerves and ensure
\npeace and hitch-free oil operation in the country, the bit that
\naddresses the issue of the proposed special funds for the development of
\noil producing communities must be taken up immediately with the urgency
\nit deserves.<\/p>\n
Is it not worrisome that we are talking of over 20 years to pass the
\nfirst fragment of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIGB)? And if this pace
\nis maintained, it will obviously take many more decades for the
\nremaining four fragments \u2013which will most likely have far reaching
\npositive effects on the oil communities and the people in the Niger
\nDelta\u2013to be passed.<\/p>\n
The federal government- executive and legislature should know that the
\nsingular passage of the PIGB will not deliver the full benefits of the
\nintended reforms except the other aspects of the Petroleum Industry Bill
\nare concurrently legislated upon particularly the aspects that address
\nfiscal reforms and the concerns of the oil host communities. God bless
\nNigeria!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ifeanyi Izeze \u201cThe Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is like a demon; that PIB thing, there are people both inside and outside the country, who would work against it, but it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n