17 July 2013, Abuja – The House of Representatives has expressed its disappointment with the level of commitment shown by the executive arm of government in the processes that will ensure the quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is currently before it.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary, Dr. Ali Ahmad, stated Tuesday in Abuja that promoters of the PIB, which is the executive arm of government and its agencies managing Nigeria’s petroleum industry, had repeatedly remained lethargic in pushing for the passage of PIB.
Ahmad said, at the second, edition of the “Abuja Dialogue” organised by a pressure group, Patriots for New Nigeria Initiative, PNNI, that key government’s promoters of the PIB were not present at its just concluded public hearing on the PIB. He noted that such attitude had often hampered the swift passage of the bill.
“We are in a state of flux in the petroleum industry and we have been in this state for a very long time. There is hardly any rigorous interface between the promoters of the bill and the legislators.
“At our just concluded public hearing on the bill, about 18 OPTS representing a good number of operators in the sector, made presentations but the government was not present; the PIB is not just for the legislators to deliberate on but for Nigerians to participate too, we don’t just invite people but we need feedbacks from them,” Ahmad said.
His claims were equally buttressed by other panelists such as the Chairman, Editorial Board, THISDAY Newspapers, Segun Adeniyi, who stated that promoters of the PIB had majorly remained hypocritical in pushing the passage of the bill.
Adeniyi explained that the promoters did not believe in the PIB as a means to addressing existing challenges in Nigeria’s hydrocarbon industry.
Similarly, the Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Isa Aremu, in his presentation, noted that the PIB was too important to be ignored by the executive arm of government.
– Chineme Okafor, This Day