By Babajide Okeowo
After a protracted stay in the National Assembly, the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB is set to be passed into law by the end of the first quarter of 2021 if the assurance by the House of Representative is anything to go by.
The Ad Hoc Committee on PIB disclosed on Wednesday after the House had on Tuesday passed the bill for second reading that the bill will be passed by the end of March 2021.
Chief Whip of the House and Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Monguno, in his opening speech at the inaugural meeting of the panel on Wednesday, noted that the PIB when passed into law, would improve the clarity of structures, roles accountability, transparency, and overall efficiency and effectiveness of the institutions in the oil industry.
“We are confident that this piece of legislation will stand the test of time. In as much as we are eager to pass the bill, we will not circumvent the legislative process. It is our hope and belief that the bill will be passed by the end of the first quarter of the year 2021.
Under our watch as a committee, which I am privileged to chair, it is a general consensus that the passage of this Bill is long overdue. We are taking the time to review what has been done by the previous Assemblies and what we need to do differently.
Prior to the referrer of the bill, the leadership of the House, the Senate, and the relevant committees of the National Assembly have been briefed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, with his team, wherein most of the concerns and controversies contained in the previous drafts has been significantly addressed with this present draft” Monguno disclosed.
The lawmaker stated that the committee would do its best by engaging various stakeholders, civil societies, and the general public by subjecting the bill to detailed and public scrutiny to ensure that Nigerians were carried along.
“The committee has taken the liberty to create a website, www.hrpib.org.ng as one of the platforms where stakeholders and interested members of the general public can download the text of the bill and also upload comments/inputs/memoranda to same.
The website is particularly important because it enables all Nigerians so long as you have internet access, irrespective of where they might be or live, to participate in the legislative process” he added.
Recall that the Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamilia, had referred the bill to the committee for further legislative processes.
The legislation was titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Provide for Legal, Governance, Regulatory and Fiscal Framework for the Nigeria Petroleum Industry, Development of Host Communities and for Related Matters.’
The journey to pass the PIB commenced in 2007 when it was first introduced on the floor of the House. However, the passage of the bill has evaded three successive Assemblies, i.e. the 6th, 7th, and 8th Assemblies.
