
OpeOluwani Akintayo
31 August 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigerian lawyers have been enjoined to get more involved in the ongoing reforms in the oil and gas industry.
Engineer Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, made the call in a statement on Thursday.
According to him, lawyers have a big role to play in the reforms and that includes getting more involved in the development of the laws and regulations, and keeping the emerging legal regime simple for easy implementation and compliance.
In providing legal advisory to their clients, he also appealed to members of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, to first explore peaceful resolution of oil and gas disputes and advise “their clients to default to out of court settlements”, noting that “long drawn legal battles are killers of great initiatives and sow the seeds of bitterness in the business environment.”