Again, House of Representatives reassure of early passage of PIB

By Kassim Omomia

The House of Representatives has, again, reassured that the Petroleum Industry Bill will be passed early this year, with the interest of the country and the people adequately taken care of.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who gave the assurances while declaring a two-day public hearing on the PIB opened in Abuja, said the Bill will be passed by April, notwithstanding decades it has stayed in the National Assembly unattended

Gbajabiamila praised the strategy adopted by the Honourable Tahir Monguno- led Adhoc committee in engaging all the stakeholders, noting that he was optimistic that the panel will deliver a perfect job

According to him, it was accepted by all that it was important the country had a comprehensive reforms in the oil and gas sector since the industry was under performing and bringing negative expectations to the country

He said ”this  critical national industry underperforms its potential and our national expectations.”

Related News: House Commends NNPC For Strides In Gas Development

Related News: PIB: NNPC to be replaced with 3 agencies

The speaker  added “For the most part, we all agree on the need for legislative action to make improvements through statutory and regulatory reform. Therefore, it is disappointing and frankly difficult to explain how successive governments have failed to deliver on the promise of reform despite this broad agreement. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an opportunity and an obligation to do better, and we will.”

“We are not oblivious to the fact of many contending interests in this sector. These contentions do not need to result in conflict, especially when we know the objective of national prosperity benefits us all. Therefore, the process of engaging with stakeholders will continue beyond this public hearing to accommodate the diversity of interests and ensure all critical views form part of the deliberations that inform the final legislation.

“Regardless of whatever other interests may exist, for this Ad-Hoc Committee and indeed the House of Representatives, Nigeria’s best interest is both our desired outcome and guiding principle. It falls to this Ad-Hoc Committee to engage in a necessary balancing act in the interests of our beloved nation”.

He explained that  the Bill has long been in the National Assembly  because of vested interests which the lawmakers were unable to contend with, noting nonetheless that a lot of work has gone into the current Bill, even though it will not be a straight jacketed , all views from the various stakeholders will be attended to

“A lot of work has gone into the preparation of this Bill, but it’s not strait-jacketed. The idea of a public hearing is to have interests that may have not been accommodated prior to the introduction of the Bill to lend their voices and to understand perhaps the bigger environment where they are coming from.

So my charge to everyone that will be participating is not to close our minds or our ears to the views and the positions that may be advanced by various interest groups. We are in a world, an economic world, so there must be interest groups, they will be interest groups and we cannot deny that, but what should guide the outcome of what we do here as we accommodate more views will be what will be in the best interest of the people, he said.

According to him, ”we intend to pass this Bill by April. That is a commitment we have made. Some may call it a tall order, but we will do it, and we will do it with every sense of responsibility without compromising the thoroughness of the work that will be done,” the Speaker said, adding that the outcome of the Bill will determine a lot of things such as the diversification of the economy, and other benefits in the oil and gas sector

“For you to diversify your economy, you have to invest money, and for you to invest money, the resources you would use to invest and develop your economy, as it is in Nigeria for now, comes from the petroleum industry.

“Whether you believe in the finite or infiniteness of the product, the point that needs to be made is that we need to derive as much profit for the time when the product is still available. We need to derive as much profit to be able to diversify into other areas.” he said further, contending that the bill would provide an opportunity for the country to “meet the obligations owed to the communities that host oil and gas exploration and transportation activities and pay a high environmental price as a consequence.”

According to Gbajabiamila, there have been various prior attempts to meet the obligation of passing the Bill, ”let us remember those attempts and be motivated by the knowledge that we can now correct past mistakes and fulfil the responsibility we owe these communities once and for all.” he said