N’Assembly set to start work on PIB, says Dogara

THE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, yesterday said the National Assembly would soon begin work on its own version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Speaking while receiving the international board of Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) at the National Assembly, Dogara said the resolve was in line with the need to reform the nation’s oil and gas sector of the economy.

He stated that the National Assembly had already drawn up its own version of the PIB, adding that the bill, which had gone into its final stages, would be given expeditious consideration on the floor of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

Dogara, who reiterated the desire of the House of Representatives to co-operate with President Muhammadu Buhari to implement reforms in the oil, gas and mining sectors, remarked that the legislature is determined to ensure that resource curse syndrome is reversed in the country.

He said: “We have repeatedly, especially my humble self, have repeatedly called on the Executive to present reform proposals in the petroleum sector. However, we may not continue to wait for an Executive bill on this subject matter as we are prepared to introduce the National Assembly’s version; what we believe should be the legal framework for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

“We cannot continue to take the blame for non-passage of the petroleum reform legislation in Nigeria. As I speak with you, work on our own version has reached advanced stage and hopefully, we hope to introduce it in both chambers of the National Assembly. If it happens that the Executive transmits its own version of the oil sector, we have ample provision in the House Rules to merge the two together. We will not continue to wait.”

Expressing the desire of the House to partner with EITI, he said it will, starting from the first quarter of this year, begin the consideration and debate of the NEITI’s extractive industry audit report on the floor of the House as this will help to actualise the Eight Assembly’s desire to be more thorough with its oversight functions, especially in the oil and gas sectors.

Earlier, the acting Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Orji Ogbannaya Orji, who accompanied the incoming chairman of EITI and former Prime Minister of Sweden, Mr. Frederick Reinfeldt, stressed the need to fight the resource curse the country is presently faced with, which is the sole purpose for which the agency was created.

In his remarks, Reinfeldt, who commended Nigeria for being one of the first African nations to key into EITI, harped on the need for transparency and prudent use of natural resources.