PIB Scales Second Reading In Senate

After three days of intense debates and contributions on the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), northern senators were yesterday caged by their southern colleagues, and the bill unanimously scaled the crucial second reading.

The resolution by the senators to pass the bill was contrary to fears from some quarters, especially with the initial stiff opposition from the lawmakers from the North that it will not see the light of the day.

The passage also comes barely 24 hours after the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, PDP, Akwa Ibom North/East, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to revoke and re-allocate oil blocs where he raised alarm that the Northerners control 83 per cent of oil blocs in the country, leaving a negligible 27 per cent for the South, where the oil comes from.

Notable Northerners including Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero; late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; former minister of defence, Gen Theophilous Danjuma; Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; Rilwanu Lukman, among others were named as the owners of the oil blocs in Nigeria.

The bill, which passed through second reading at the upper legislative chamber, had altogether 81 out of the 109 senators that spoke on it for the three days.

Speaking after discussions on the bill by the senators, Senate President, David Mark, who presided over the plenary, said that the PIB belongs to all Nigerians, and not a part of the country.

Senate president, said that the bill was not about the North versus the South, adding that what was good for the North was equally good for the South.

Several senators from the North had rejected the 10 per cent host community fund proposed in the PIB, and said that it would further widen the disparity in federation allocations.

Mark said: “I must emphasise that the bill is not North versus South, far from that. What is good for the North is also good for the South and what is bad for the South is bad for the North.”

The Senate president said that all the senators, who contributed to the debate acknowledged the fact that the bill was critical to the restructuring the oil sector.

He said that the lawmakers were unanimous in their demands that certain aspects of the bill needed to be amended to ensure transparency in the oil industry.

“Let me emphasise that no bill has come to the chamber that we have not tinkered with. So, the draft bill that has been given to us is not sacrosanct.

“It will go for second reading and public hearing and by the time it comes back; there will be amendments, additions and subtractions.

“The committees that will look at it will bring the bill back in a manner that will reflect the views that we have expressed here and the views gathered from the public.

“More importantly, when the bill comes back from the public hearing, we are going to do clause by clause consideration of it in this chamber,’’ he said.

Mark decried the continued mismanagement of the funds which accrued to the oil producing communities by a “few criminally minded individuals’’.

He said that Nigerians were disturbed that the level of development in the oil producing communities had failed to reflect the huge allocations given to those areas.

Mark added that such mismanagement had fuelled the suspicion expressed by some senators on the practicability of the 10 per cent host community fund, proposed in the bill.

“The background to it is that the monies accruing to the Niger Delta has not been properly utilised and that is the underlining fear of everybody.

“Everybody that spoke here agreed that the host community needed to benefit.

“The fear is whether the 10 per cent (proposed) for the host communities (in the bill) will be another pipeline where a few characters will hijack it at the expense of the host community.’’

The Senate president rejected suggestions at the floor of the senate, that an ad-hoc committee be constituted to consider contentious areas in the bill.

He said that the Senate standing committees were sufficient enough to handle all matters relating to the bill.

Mark, however, cautioned that some provisions in the bill were “impracticable”.

For instance, he said: “How can you suggest that this bill should be exempted from the Procurement Act?

“It is scandalous. The Procurement Act will be there.

“If the bill offends it or if an operator of this bill when it becomes an Act, offends the Procurement Act, it offends an Act of the National Assembly.

“It is not Act of an individual it is an Act of the National Assembly,” he said.

The Senate, however, referred the bill to the committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream), Gas and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, with a period of six weeks to organise public hearings and report back to the entire House.

The Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) has Senator Emmanuel Paulker (PDP-Bayelsa Central) as chairman; Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) has Senator Magnus Abe (PDP-Rivers South East) as chairman; Committee on Gas has Senator Nkechi Justina Nwaogu (PDP-Abia Central) as chairman; while the Chairman, Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters is Senator Umaru Dahiru (PDP-Sokoto South).