Politics
PIB: North’s Undevelopmental Stance
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently awaiting legislative assent in the hallowed chambers has become an enigma of sort. The reason is simple: from being one of the most democratic phenomenons ever thought of in Nigeria, it has become what is capable of disintegrating the most populous African nation.
Ridiculously, and ironically too, the root cause of the present imbroglio is encapsulated in what George Orwell meant when he said in the book, “Animal Farm” that “in a time of deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary.”
Interestingly, there is hardly any Nigerian, who disagrees, openly, that the country’s petroleum industry needs deliverance, in its entirety. The primary reason is that the industry is the backbone of the country. Therefore, if corruption thrives in it as much as have been variously alleged, the PIB couldn’t have come at a better time, even as many feel it is belated.
Obviously, this reasoning seems to be what guided proponents of the bill over a decade ago, prominent among which was Dr. Rilwanu Lukeman, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, who conceived the idea in 2000.
The PIB is based on the report of the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC) set up by the Federal Government in 2000 to carry out a comprehensive reform of the oil industry. The OGIC was charged with making recommendations for a far-reaching restructuring of the oil and gas industry. The committee was chaired by Lukman, who was then the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy.
According to Lukeman, the PIB constitutes a reform legislation designed to encapsulate the legislative and administrative instruments governing the petroleum industry in one omnibus legislation, establishing clear rules, procedures and institutions for the industry.
In a presentation at a stakeholders’ session in 2009, Lukman said: “The Nigeria Petroleum Industry Bill is a remarkable document, which contains most of the legal requirements that will apply to the petroleum industry in Nigeria.
“The PIB combines 16 different petroleum laws in a transparent and coherent document. This is the first time that such a large scale consolidation has happened anywhere in the world. Good governance is promoted through the removal of much of the confidentiality as well as creating transparency.
“Confidentiality encourages corruption. The best way to fight corruption is to remove confidentiality from all procedures, contracts and payments. Every Nigerian, including stakeholders, should have the right to know what is going on. The bill removes confidentiality on a scale not seen in the world before. Nigeria will move in one step from one of the most opaque petroleum nations in Africa, to one of the most open and transparent in the world.
“The texts of all licenses, leases and contracts and any of the changes to such documents will no longer be confidential. Payments to the government of Nigeria will be public information. All petroleum geological, geophysical, technical and (oil) well data will be accessible for all interested persons in a national data base.
“The proposed bill will result in a significant increase in transparency. From now on, petroleum prospecting licenses and petroleum mining leases can only be granted by the Minister through a truly competitive bid process. Such process will be open and accessible to all qualified companies.
“Every company involved in the upstream petroleum industry will be subject to the same system of rents, royalties and taxes, depending on whether they operate in the onshore, shallow or deep offshore or inland areas.
“This means it will not be possible under the bill to treat certain companies more favourably than others. Nigerians can only fully benefit from their petroleum resources, if there is a sound petroleum administration,” he said.
In spite of this anticipated Eldorado, major companies involved in oil and gas exploration and exploitation, mostly multinationals, were the first to pick holes in the bill. They kicked against the perceived contentious provisions in the bill, especially the fiscal terms, claiming that the benefits the government wants from operations are so high that if the bill is passed in its present state, they would be running their business at a loss.
Other issues in the bill that operators frown at include undue powers conferred on the Minister of Petroleum and some conditions attached to acreage leases to oil firms. These and other issues that border on downstream sector are what the Federal Government was trying to resolve before Northern lawmakers recently joined the fray.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Sen. Bukar Abba-Ibrahim (ANPP-Yobe) gave an insight into the North’s opposition to the PIB, saying it is lopsided. He said the clause in the PIB, which allots additional 10 per cent revenue for oil producing communities was unacceptable.
Abba-Ibrahim, a former Governor of Yobe State, said, “This issue of oil producing communities getting 10 per cent of whatever is gotten from oil in addition to all sources of revenue for the oil producing states which has now divided the country into two, with oil producing states having more than what they need and squandering the oil riches, and the non-oil producing state, which are more in number, hardly surviving, hardly paying salaries and hardly doing anything has to stop.”
The lawmaker continued that the North was also opposed to the PIB because of its failure to make provision for the exploitation of other minerals all over the country.
“We have over 800 million tones of limestone in Gulane, Fune and Guljimba local governments of Yobe, but as a state government, you cannot go and exploit, it has to be Federal Government.’’
He is, however, optimistic that the bill when passed would sanitise the Petroleum Industry and address the issue of corruption in the sector.
A critical analysis of Abba-Ibrahim’s statements reveals that when he said oil producing states where “having more than what they need”, he was inadvertently confirming that governments have always been squandering public funds. Such funds are meant for the development of the populace.
Obviously, if the populace were being developed, the government would not have been accused of squandering funds allocated for development. So, why is he and his Northern brothers against the development of primary recipients of hazards accruable from oil exploration, extraction and exploitation? What difference will it make to the communities when such fund is deposited in the national treasury?
Democracy has clearly been so misconstrued that people are often so blind with their own version of patriotism that they find it difficult to face reality. They thus forget that wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
The Northern stance is thus a quest for the status quo of squandering public fund to remain. It is another way of saying that it is wrong for the hitherto devastated oil producing communities to be developed.
The North should rather take a cue from the popular television presenter, Oprah Winfrey, who once said, “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new centre of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”
Since they have confirmed that they are rich in limestone, for instance, the right thing to do to avoid the division of the country over benefits accruable to host communities of mineral resources is to exert such energies as they expend on fighting for oil proceeds on the Federal Government to commence exploration of alternative mineral resources in their various states through legislation.
With the exploration and exploitation of such mineral resources in their states, they will also get into the groove of enjoying the proceeds. To do otherwise will amount to repeating the same mistake made during the pre and post colonial era when educationally developed states were made to wait for the less developed ones to catch up. This is against the principle of democracy.
In addition, if they are truly concerned about the development of Nigeria, they should concern themselves more with coming up with laws that would check financial impropriety at all levels of governance. This is what the PIB seeks to do in the petroleum industry.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday brushed aside the order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which ordered him to stay proceedings in a suit that sought deregistration of the African Democratic Party (ADC), Accord Party and three others.
The Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision of a panel of three Justices had on May 22, 2026 directed the Federal High Court Judge not to proceed with the suit until an appeal pending before them and filed by Accord Party is resolved.
In a Certified True Copy Enrol Order of the Superior Court, Justices Mohammed Danjuma, Adebukola Banjoko and Oyejoju Oyewumi asked the lower Court Judge to stay proceedings until all issues on the appeal filed by the Accord Party were resolved
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State had, through the Accord Party, applied to justice Lifu to join him as a defendant in the deregistration legal battle instituted by a group of former legislators.
The contention of the Osun State governor was that he had a stake in the Accord Party, being the platform he was seeking re-election in the August 15 gubernatorial poll in the state.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu on April 27 ruled against the Osun State governor, rejecting his request to be joined in the suit to defend his own position and interest.
Not satisfied with the Federal High Court decision, the Osun State governor, through his lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), moved to the Court of Appeal in Abuja where he challenged the Justice Lifu decision to refuse to allow him join the suit.
After listening to the argument canvassed, especially that he has interest to protect as Accord Party gubernatorial candidate for Osun State governorship election, the three Justices of the Court of Appeal, unanimously directed Justice Lifu to allow them look into the grievances of the governor.
In specific terms, the Court of Appeal Justices directed Justice Lifu not to proceed further with the matter and fixed October 27 to determine the interlocutory appeal of the appellant.
However, when the certified enroll order and notice of appeal were served on Justice Peter Lifu by Mr Adetunbi (SAN), the judge rejected it on the ground that it was a ploy to arrest his judgment in the matter.
Although the judge had adjourned his judgment delivery in the matter indefinitely, he finally made a dramatic turn around on Monday and proceeded to deliver the judgment that has now proscribed the five political parties.
Actor turned politician, Mr Kenneth Okonkwo, has rejected the choice of former Rivers State Governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, as the running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
In a statement on Monday, Mallam Bolaji Abdulllahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, announced the party’s choice of Mr Amaechi.
However in a statement, Mr Okonkwo said that the choice of Mr Amaechi from the South South strengthens the continued marginalization of people from the South East.
According to the former spokesperson of the Labour Party, any arrangement that would not factor a person from the South East either as president or vice president in the party is anti-Igbo.
He contended that Chief Raph Nwosu, who founded the ADC in 2005 and willingly surrendered it’s leadership to Senator David Mark did not do so to entrench Igbo marginalization in the party.
The former actor said: “I heard from the social media that ADC has picked its vice presidential candidate from the South-South. If this is true, it is unfortunate, as this will continue the crude marginalisation of the South-East.
“This geo-political zone has neither produced a president or vice president since 1999. To deny the South-East the opportunity to produce the president or vice president in the ADC in 2027, will amount to perpetuating the marginalisation.
“The ADC was founded by Ralphs Nwosu from the South-East in 2005. He made the sacrifice to give up the party in 2025 for the coalition to usher in a better Nigeria. He couldn’t have made that sacrifice to marginalise his own people.
“I did not join the coalition to assist in marginalisation of my own people further. I am of the opinion that if we made a sacrifice to give up the national chairman and the president, it will amount to unpardonable injustice to deny us the vice president in 2027.
“I joined politics to fight for a better Nigeria where no region, geo-political zone, or person will be marginalised.
“The only favour I asked Atiku Abubakar, who openly declared that he is the pathway to the presidency of the South-East, is to show it by choosing someone from the South-East to be his vice.
“If it is confirmed that he has chosen a candidate from the South-South, I wish him well. I am not favourably disposed to campaigning for any presidential ticket that does not have a person of South-East origin as president or vice in 2027”
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, on Monday said that the numerous projects being executed by President Bola Tinubu across the states in the southeast will give him upper hand over other presidential candidates during next year’s general elections.
Prof. Yilwatda stated this at the Abakaliki Township Stadium during a mega rally organized by the Ebonyi State government and Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, during which President Tinubu and other APC candidates for the 2027 general elections were adopted.
According to the APC National Chairman, no President had done for the southeast region what President Tinubu has done for them and expressed the confidence that the president would not only win in Ebonyi State but in the entire South East.
Prof. Yilwatda also used the occasion to address growing insinuations in some quarters that Ebonyi State had been conceded to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Dismissing the claim, Prof. Yilwatda said the state would not allow the PDP to win any position in the forthcoming general election.
“We will return President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Francis Nwifuru as Governor of Ebonyi State in 2027.
“We want to return all APC senators, members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates in 2027.
“Nobody has conceded Ebonyi to the PDP. Therefore, there is no vacancy in Ebonyi State. Ebonyi PDP has no place, and there is no vacancy at all in the Government House come 2027,” the APC National Chairman declared.
He commended the people of the state for their support for President Tinubu and urged them to re-elect him in the next presidential election in appreciation of what he has done for the state and the entire South-East through infrastructural transformation and human capital development.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, who also spoke at the event, said the state had no other presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections apart from President Tinubu.
He declared that Ebonyi remained a stronghold of the APC and vowed that the party would deliver the President in the state.
Gov. Nwifuru said President Tinubu had shown exceptional commitment to the state and deserved total support for appointing Senator Umahi as Minister of Works, a role he said Senator Umahi had performed creditably.
“Ebonyi has no other presidential candidate apart from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we will return him in the presidential election.
“We are standing here today to tell the whole world, especially those using the President’s name to orchestrate division and confusion in this great state, that we have only one party, and that is the APC.
“This statement became necessary because some people are going around claiming they have discussed with Mr President and that he has handed Ebonyi over to the PDP. They are also saying that Chief Nyesom Wike is their leader and that Wike said the President has given Ebonyi to him.
“Ebonyi is not for sale. We are restraining ourselves because the people are with us. Nobody should push us because we have what it takes to confront anyone trying to destabilise us.
“We want to tell Mr President that he has earned our votes. He gave us what we had never had in Eastern Nigeria — the office of the Minister of Works. And this Minister of Works is not sitting idle; he is working,” he stated.
Senator Umahi, in his remarks, said President Tinubu had done what no other President had done for Ebonyi State and the entire South-East by executing numerous projects across the state and the region.
“Ebonyi State is a one-party state under Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done a lot, not just for Ebonyi State but for the entire South-East and other geopolitical zones,” he said.