The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, vows that the PIB bill will be passed by April, writes Adelaja Samuel
Crude oil discovery in Nigeria has been a mixed bag of blessing and
curse. Development experts often refer to a pathetic scenario when
discovered natural resource becomes a source of strife and a bigger
problem as a resource curse; it is indeed a paradox of plenty.
The oil boom of the early 70s in Nigeria brought a doom of a sort.
Agriculture which was the mainstay of the nation’s economy was benched
for the free and easy money from crude oil. Palm oil which was
produced in commercial volume before the oil boom was abandoned for
peasant farmers in the Mid-west and Eastern parts of Nigeria; ditto
cocoa in the West, cotton and groundnut in the North.
Malaysia took the lead in palm oil production in the world from the
seedlings it reportedly took from Nigeria. Not all, the resource curse
also bred ethnic and militia struggle as indigenous land owners where
crude oil resides lay claim on their ancestral land. They called for
Resource Control. Consensus was reached for derivation earnings. The
oil communities and states got a fairly bigger share of the cake to
douse tension.
Yet, the problems remain unabated. Not even the upward review of
derivations earnings could assuage the yearnings of agitating
communities. Poverty, under- development and lack and want were
commonplace in the oil-rich region. Emergency billionaires emerged
without lifting a pin, and wanton greed, corruption worsened the lot of
the masses in the area.
Environmental Activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow kinsmen drew the
ire of callous, brutal Nigeria’s dictator, late General Sani Abacha
over agitation for better deal and regeneration of degraded
Ogoni-land. They paid with their lives. The struggle continues till
date leaving pain and blood on the trail.
The distraction of crude oil and the neglect of other real sectors of
the economy were really calamitous. Till date, crude oil still
dominates Nigeria’s economy, accounting for around 90% of export
earnings. The country has the largest oil and gas reserves in
sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 37bn barrels of oil and 188
trillion cubic feet of gas, according to a report by African Business.
The largely ungovernable industry has cost the country unimaginable
fortunes. Everything is vague and international interests and
multinational corporations exploit the loose and unstructured
industry to their advantage. Joint ventures between oil giants and the
nation’s oil corporation cum regulator, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) were skewed in favour of the oil firms.
“Value has leached away through opaque licensing deals, unaccountable
middlemen, a lack of refining capacity and graft in the government and
state-owned NNPC. Sabotage
and pipeline theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta have ensured that the
taxpayer loses out on billions of dollars in annual revenues”, an
article titled, ‘What is Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill and why is
it significant?’ published in a African Business aptly captured.
To better harness the potential and plug massive wastages in the
sector, successive governments since the inception of the current
democratic dispensation tried to enact governance and order in the
sector without much success. The Muhammadu Buhari government made
honest efforts culminating in a new version of PIB distilled into four
critical segments.
The House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, a man
of action who has shown exemplary leadership over and again since he
assumed office as Speaker has shown more than passing interest in the
bill. This time around, he stamped his feet and resisted further
dilly-dally on the all-crucial piece of legislation. He staked his
reputation and assured the world that in barely three months away, PIB
will be passed as an Act of the Nigeria’s parliament.
Trust Gbajabiamila, if he has to climb mountains and ascend hills, the
speaker will embark on such a voyage to meet the set date. He is a man
who is in a hurry to see Nigeria transform into Eldorado. The volcano
ripple-effects of the PIB on the economy, host communities and the
massive jobs that will erupt along multiple value chains of the
unbundled sector will energize Gbaja to push through PIB by April.
For those who might fear that thoroughness will be sacrificed on the
altar of due diligence and clinical perusal should not fret. The
speaker is finicky to a fault. His training as a lawyer designed him
so. He displayed that when the controversial Water Bill debate raged
at the floor of the Green Chamber.
Powerful cabal who are unduly cashing out and making a kill from the
unstructured industry cannot stop him. The collective interest of
Nigeria and her people far outweighs the parochial and selfish
interests of the powerful few.
The speaker said, “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.”
The Speaker added that “This bill has been long coming as the chairman
said. It has been upcoming in the last 20 years. Because of contending
and vested interests, we have not been able to reach the desired
outcome over the years.
“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.
“More importantly, 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.