By CHRIS OCHAYI

ABUJA – Worried by the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, by the National Assembly, a Civil Society Organization, Publish What You Pay, PWYP, has appealed to the Extractive Industry Transparency International, EITI, to add its voice to ensure early passage of the bill into law.

The Chair PWYP Nigeria Steering Committee, Faith Nwadishi, who made the appeal at a consultative meeting recently with EITI, Chairperson, Ms. Clare Short in Abuja, said the passage of the bill will bring a new sanity and order in the Nigeria extractive business as well as promote transparency.

She said “the petroleum industry bill, if passed into law, will force key players to fit into the high levels of transparency and accountability discipline which the law envisages. This is a defining moment that PWYP Nigeria will require absolute support from EITI.”

According to her “another area that PWYP and Nigeria CSOs require the voice and support of EITI is on the required advocacy to ensure passage of the petroleum Industry bill in a manner that reflects the spirit and letters of EITI’s overall objectives.

“We are sure that once this law is passed, it will bring a new sanity order in the Nigeria extractive business as well as promote transparency. In this area, we need your voice and capacity support to engage relevant stakeholders that are necessary for the passage of this bill into law.”

She said “Nigeria is one of the leading black nations in terms of the desire to implement EITI initiatives having set up NEITI through a federal law, having been certified as EITI compliant and won the best implementing country award recently.

“These numerous achievements that have been made in Nigeria since the establishment of EITI are obvious, but we are quick to say that the extractive sector transparency supply challenges are fast becoming as numerous as the gains we have recorded.

“The constant screaming media headlines on extractive sector transparency and accountability issues testify to this conclusion. There is therefore no doubt that so many issues require urgent attention to generate the level of transparency and accountability that will be beneficial to Nigerians.

“The best time for such attention is now, because if we fail to sustain the momentum and spirit of outputs, there is the possibility that divergent pressures can cause a relapse that will wipe away years of positive outputs.

“The extractive sector is a very lucrative sector with so much funds and knowledge. This also makes the sector a very dangerous one to market the need for transparency and demand openness in the management of the sector. This means that capacity of people oriented stakeholders, particularly, PWYP, which engages the demand and supply ends of the extractive sector are quickly, thoroughly strengthened to effectively engage the divergent transparency issues that emerge on almost a monthly basis.

“Again, this capacity enhancement has become very crucial because PWYP members need to clearly understand the EITI new standards and generate the required confidence and knowledge to support wider Nigeria CSOs in engaging and following up on remediation from NEITI audits.