By Thompson ABISOLA
Publish What You Pay (PWYP), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has advocated for the quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bills (PIBs), to regulate the petroleum industry in the country.
National Coordinator of the CSO, Mr Peter Egbule, made the call at a news conference on Monday in Abuja. Egbule recalled that the protracted attempt at enacting a more effective and socio-economically beneficial law to regulate the petroleum industry did not yield the desired positive result.
He noted that the attempt had lasted for close to two decades without commensurate success.
According to him, the substantive law guiding the operations and administration of the industry was enacted about 50 years ago.
He said some of the provisions had since been overtaken by significant changes in the industry at the domestic level and globally. Egbule noted that in spite of the obvious need to restructure the regulatory frameworks of the entire petroleum value chain in Nigeria, successive administrations had failed to achieve this.
The coordinator, however, noted that the present administration`s efforts to pass the bill into law necessitated the disaggregation of the initial PIB into four distinctive bills.
The bills are Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), Petroleum Industry Administrative Bill (PIAB), Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB) and Petroleum Host and Impacted Community Bill (PHAICB).
Of the four bills, the National Assembly has passed only the PIGB which has yet to receive the President’s assent.
Egbule said it was disturbing that the National Assembly recalled the bill for a review without further work on it.
He said the signing of the bill was in the collective interest of all Nigerians, stressing that it would create functional administrative structure and reduce financial leakages.
The coordinator, therefore, appealed to the National Assembly to immediately refocus on the passage of the bills before the 2019 general elections
He said tthe quick passage of the bills would promote the country`s economy, adding that the country should take a cue from Saudi Arabia’s regulation of its oil sector.
“We are losing a lot based on leakages observed in the sector; installation of metering is needed in the sector to determine the quantity produced and supplied,” Egbule said.
