After five decades of operating an obsolete Petroleum Act, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, signed into law, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), not minding the controversial sections .....
• PDP decries Presidential assent despite outcry, seeks urgent amendment
By assenting, the President possibly aligned with positions of the National Assembly, which proposes a 30 per cent revenue allocation for the development of frontier inland basins that are mainly in the North, dismal allocation to host communities, possible duopoly in the downstream sector, a 10 per cent management fee and other issues on Production Sharing Contract as well as Joint Venture obligations.
The new legislation, despite the gaps, however, provide needed clarity on laws guiding the operations of the oil and gas sector, and equally tests the capacity of the government to implement its laws, especially as it relates to downstream deregulation, particularly, subsidy removal. Chairman of Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria , Bank-Anthony Okoroafor, who described the move as a good step, said: “At least, we have a law that will bring clarity to the fiscal terms in the Nigerian oil and gas.”
A legal practitioner in the energy sector, Madaki Ameh, stated that as presently crafted with a lot of unresolved issues, the assent to the bill might not be anything other than putting pay to the long delays that have attended the legislation. Economist and former Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Dr. Muda Yusuf, said the presidential assent to the PIB is a welcome development, even though it is not a perfect legislation because not all the concerns of major stakeholders have been addressed by the legislation.
“It is unfortunate that President Buhari went ahead to assent to the PIB despite overwhelming outcry and condemnation that greeted its passage by the National Assembly, especially with regards to the paltry three per cent provision for the Host Communities Development Trust Fund and the brazen appropriation of an outrageous 30 per cent of NNPC Ltd profit for a dubious, nebulous Frontier Oil Exploration Fund.
With all the imperfections in the law still, Osifo said all the critical stakeholders must come together to ensure the best is got from the law. The NUPENG helmsman urged the Federal Government to put in place machinery to ensure the smooth take off of the new legislation. “Efforts at reaching this stage have been a protracted affair as the Bill, first initiated in 2003, had been subjected to a ping pong affair between the previous legislatures and the executive.
“By his action, President Buhari has only authenticated that he is not a listening leader and that the APC and its leaders are only out to trample on the will of Nigerians for their selfish interests.”
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