SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, (THEWILL) – The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara on Monday expressed the determination of the House to ensure the passage of its own version of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, into law.
He spoke in Abuja at a national stakeholders’ summit on petroleum industry reforms organised by the House Committees on Petroleum Resources (upstream and downstream).
Acknowledging several unsuccessful attempts at redeeming the petroleum industry by the previous Assemblies, the Speaker asserted that this time around, the 8th House would do everything within its powers to ensure passage of the bill.
He maintained that all the contentious areas in the proposed law would be revisited with a view to getting the inputs of all stakeholders in order to come up with an effective law at the end of the day.
Dogara however pointed out that it is only when the PIB is passed that sanity would be brought to the petroleum industry, adding that “the passion for change has provided the much-needed energy for us to push reforms in critical sectors of our country. We are determined to take this cause across vital sectors of the economy with specific attention on the petroleum industry.
“This has become urgent because the industry has not been forthcoming in meeting expectations and actualisation of its great promises. Instead, it has become the classic case of inefficiency, mismanagement and ineptitude,” he said.
The Speaker, who said the summit was organised to reach consensus and lend a voice to long suppressed agitations in the drafting and consideration of the PIB, stressed that “We are optimistic that this approach will provide the crucial platform to enable us cross pollinate ideas and ventilate our positions on certain contentious issues, regardless of how vexed they may be.
“You can rest assured that our work at the National Assembly is to do your good intention.”
He disclosed that both the downstream and upstream sectors of the petroleum industry have been experiencing a myriad of challenges, which he said were reflective of an industry that was in critical need of total overhauling.
Dogara used the occasion to renew his call on the executive arm of government to urgently forward its own version of the PIB to the National Assembly for work to immediately commence on it.
