Saraki Orders Indefinite Suspension of Work on New Petroleum Industry Bill

Saraki Orders Indefinite Suspension of Work on New Petroleum Industry Bill

The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a legislation many look forward to as one with a promise to resolve most of the administrative and environmental issues affecting Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, may have suffered yet another setback.

The PIB has been before the national assembly for an upwards of 10 years with each successive session of the legislature unable to pass the bill into law owing to various challenges. The bill has equally drawn some controversies before the present 8th national assembly.

One of the current challenges is to do with the inadequate allocations to the oil-bearing communities, as alleged by lawmakers of southern origin while northern senators have also objected to the grant of 10 percent royalty proposed for the host oil communities, the oil producing regions in the Niger Delta.

Reports of the removal of the “Host Community Development Fund,” as contained in the original PIB, recently sparked debates along ethnic and geopolitical lines in the national assembly and the country at large.

Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, has many times assured Nigerians that the PIB, which has been re-christened Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), would be passed in the senate, for subsequent assent by President Muhammadu Buhari, under his leadership.

The bill had indeed passed through its first reading and was being prepared for its second reading before Saraki ordered an indefinite suspension of work on the bill owing to the many controversies raging within the senate over the bill, according to Vanguard.

A source within the senate is said to have stated that it took a lot of effort before the senate president could convince his colleagues to allow the first reading of the bill take place but it appears not many are willing to shift their grounds ahead of the second reading.