…urges fast completion of process, presidential assent

By Gabriel Ewepu

THE Civil Society Legislative Advocacy, CISLAC, Friday, hailed the National Assembly over passage of the long awaited Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which is a new vista in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

 The commendation was made in a statement signed by the Executive Director, CISLAC and Head Transparency International, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, which recalled the involvement and advocacies CISLAC and other Civil Society Organisaions, CSOs, embarked on to press for the passage of the PIB even before the ninth Assembly.

The statement reads in part, “The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy, CISLAC commends the two chambers of the National Assembly in the 9th Assembly for making mark by passing the Petroleum Industry Bill.

“CISLAC recalls that in response to intense campaign and advocacy by several groups in civil society, including CISLAC and her partners, the National Assembly passed the PIB, which is and remains the Bill drafted to provide clear legal framework to regulate the oil and gas sector to provide some certainty, transparency and accountability necessary for investments and maximization of benefit for Nigerians.

“We are therefore encouraged by the action of the National Assembly which we believe has re-kindled the hope that this elusive and all-important law could see the light of day in the life of this administration.

“CISLAC reminds the Federal Government that the passage of this law was a campaign promise made upon election in 2015 and had been repeated over the past six years in various forms. Indeed, by the schedule of the much publicised 7 Big Wins, it ought to have been passed since December 2016.

“It will be unnecessary to remind the Federal Government of the trillion of Naira lost, 20 years of uncertainty created and subsequent loss of investor confidence and investments with all its attendant implications to the sector Nigeria depends on for over 80 per cent of its foreign exchange and about 92 per cent of government earnings.

However, the statement urged NASS of fast completion of legislative process, and called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to delay his presidential assent to the bill for total transformation of the oil and gas industry.

“CISLAC therefore calls on the Legislative and administrative sects of the National Assembly to complete the process necessary for the bill to be submitted to the President for Assent.

“This will further assure Nigerians of the NASS commitment to ensure that the PIB is passed into law during this legislative session to end the 20-year wait for reforms and clear policy and legislative direction for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

“We call on the President, upon receipt of the Bill, to assent to it without further delay as a mark of integrity to fulfill a long standing promise to Nigerians, demonstrate of his commitment to sanitizing the oil and gas sector, which is notorious for corruption and making a mark that will negate the insinuations that his refusal to assent to the PIB will be linked to the aspiration of retaining discretionary powers for the office of the Minster of Petroleum Resources, which he currently occupies, to award oil licenses”, it concluded.