Buhari Withholding Assent To PIGB, A Grave Setback In Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Reform – ANN.

One of Nigerian opposition political party, Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN, has express its displeasure over President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the historic Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) as passed by the national assembly in March 28, 2018, thereby throwing the historical petroleum industry reform into serious setback.

The party while reacting through its spokesman, Akinloye Oyeniyi, called the rejection a grave setback in the nation’s mission to reform and open up her petroleum industry and pleaded with the president to reconsider his stance.

The surprised Oyeniyi with a dampened spirit said ” This is a grave one, a gross setback to a historical reform we conceived to liberalise the governance structure of our oil sector. PIGB is one of the four proposed bills in which the omnibus Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was broken into by the national assembly, to govern the most central sector of our nation, but look at what’s happening because we have people at the helms of our affairs who should ordinarily not have business being there. Apart from the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Theresa May saying we are poor, the recent World Bank data on share of population living under $1.9 a day, Nigeria is ranked 4th in the world with 53% after Madagascar: 77.6%, DR Congo: 77.1%, and Uzbekistan: 62.1%; and second in Africa ahead of Kenya 42.8%, Angola: 30.1% and Ethiopia: 26.7%. With the share of population living at below $5.5 a day, we are ranked first with 92.1% leading

India: 86.8%, Ethiopia: 84.7%, Bangladesh: 84.5% etc. Yet we won’t want to do what will take us out the poverty because of unpatriotic reasons.

“The three grounds cited by the president are not anything close to parliamentary suitability while considering grounds of withholding assent by any president or a governor, but Buhari sent that fanstactic bill back to the national assembly on those three grounds not compatible with altruistic concerns.

“It is laughable that President Buhari sent that bill back to the national assembly saying if signed into law, the said bill would  whittle down his power as minister of petroleum resources; that none of the ministers he consulted over it supported signing it into law; and that he did not see any fiscal content of the bill, even when the executive is aware a separate proposal, Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB), is currently being considered by the lawmakers. What a time to be a Nigerian. Despite all our years of campaigns to reform that sector!”

Apart from the PIGB and PIFB, Petroleum Industry Administration Bill (PIAB) and the Petroleum Host Community Bill (PHCB) are other bills from the old PIB under parliamentary consideration.

Advising the president, Oyeniyi said “We know the problem is the proposed establishment of the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NPRC), by merging the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), to take over the regulatory powers of the minister of petroleum resources under the Petroleum A and Pipelines Act. But we advise Mr. President to reconsider this his stance by signing the bill as it will not only save the nation the curse of the black gold and back-and-forth reform campaign but a big twilight plus to the poor image of his outgoing administration.”, Oyeniyi said.