…urges N’Delta communities to challenge provisions in court

By Chioma Onuegbu

A Civil Society Organisation working on  economic and ecological justice, Policy Alert has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s signing the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, into Law amidst flaws and protests by host communities in the Niger Delta as insensitive and sad.

According to a statement signed by its Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Officer, Mrs. Nneka Luke-Ndumere, Policy Alert, therefore, urged the host communities and civil society groups to challenge provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in court.

It stressed that as a tool for improved benefit sharing to host communities, the Act falls  ridicules the exertions of the host communities and advocacy groups that have clamoured over the years for a law that yields some space for participation, direct socio-economic benefits and environmental remediation for oil-rich  communities.

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Policy Alert stated, “President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday, August 16, 2021 signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law despite protests from community groups and many stakeholders that the Bill was incompatible with the rights and interests of the host communities.

“It is sad, grossly insensitive and problematic.

As implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act get underway over the next 12 months, we urge host communities and civil society groups to begin to seek interpretation of some of its more controversial provisions before the court.

 “For example the controversial provision for a direct payment of 30percent profit of oil and gas to the Frontier Exploration Fund shortchanges oil producing states and local governments of some of its 13% derivation as it bypasses the requirement in section 162 (2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which provides that all revenues be channeled through the federation account.

“This is most unfair, viewed against the ceding of only three percent of previous years’ operating expenses to the Host Communities

Development Trust Fund and the punitive provision to charge costs of any damage to facilities against the community’s Fund, among other obnoxious provisions”

The Civil Society group maintained that President Buhari going ahead to give assent to those vexing provisions only reinforces the politics of exclusion and expropriation that has for long characterized the relationship between the Nigerian state and the oil producing communities.

It regretted that at a time when fossil fuel investments are being de-prioritized elsewhere as a result of the global energy transition, the PIA failed to provide a bridge between current era of fossil fuel dependency and the low-carbon energy that Nigeria  aspires to within the framework of government’s much vaunted commitments under the Paris Agreement.

“Granted, the new legal framework introduces some predictability and clarity to the governance and fiscal arrangements in the oil and gas industry.

“We are also concerned that the host communities’ component of the legislation flies in the face of one of its stated objectives to address tensions between host communities and companies as it has all the ingredients for escalating rather than abating such conflicts.

“We are also not oblivious to certain clauses  that respond to some of our earlier demands, such as those providing that the Board of Trustees of the Host Communities Development Trust will now be determined in consultation with the host communities, with membership drawn from community members”, it added.

Vanguard News Nigeria