Nigeria, on Thursday, inched closer to having a new legal framework for regulating the oil industry and unbundling the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The bill was passed during the plenary at which the clause-by -clause consideration was undertaken.
The Senate before passing the bill met behind closed doors with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari.
The bill was first presented to the National Assembly I 2008. There had been forth and back on the Bill under previous administrations due to certain controversial provisions.
On 28 September, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the PIB to the National Assembly for reconsideration.
The Bill seeks to introduce changes to the governance, administrative, regulatory, and fiscal framework of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, in order to ensure transparency, strengthen the governing institutions, and attract investment capital, among other objectives.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the Senate expected President Buhari to sign the bill as soon as it was transmitted.
He added that the bill got the input of both the executive and legislative arms of government.
The Senate then adjourned till July 6, 2021.
▪︎House of Reps acts on Bill
There was drama as the House of Representatives finally adopted the report of the House Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill.
There were initial rumbling from the opposition, which the House leadership brushed aside
In fact, lawmakers were denied the opportunity to make contributions to the consideration of the report.
The deputy speaker, Idris Wase, apparently reading a prepared script ignored shouts of point of “order” by opposition lawmakers.
While that was on, APC lawmakers were urging him on by saying “carried” as he read out the clauses.
All attempts by Hon Sergius Oguns to convince the PIB chairman committee, Hon Tahir Monguno, fell through as the shouts of “order” and “carried” rent the air.
No lawmaker was allowed make any input into the report.
This led to a rowdy session as PDP Reps protested by trenchantly raising points of order.
APC members stood their grounds, deploying their numbers in the shouting game.
They kept shouting “carried” and the Deputy Speaker who presided following the stepping down from the seat by Femi Gbajabiamila for another assignment, kept hitting the table with the Gavel.
He did so with all the 319 clauses.
Except for Clause 240 SS2 that was deleted as pointed out by the PIB chairman all the clauses were carried.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila hailed the committee and promised that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill too would be treated before the annual recess.
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