How Politics, Intrigues Stalled Passage Of Petroleum Industry Bill For 17 years – Lawmaker
The Senator representing Ondo Central in the National Assembly, Chief Tayo Alasoadura, at the weekend, narrated the hurdles surmounted by the Senate to pass into law, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), a modified version of the much anticipated Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law after 17 years of consideration.
Alasoadura, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), revealed this in Akure, the Ondo State capital, when receiving a commendation letter from the state Correspondent Chapel on assessment of his representation by the people of the state.
The lawmaker said that the imbalance in the National Assembly, which often makes puts votes from the northern senators in the majority, coupled with efforts of oil lords who benefit from the situation, stalled the bill.
He noted that the politics behind the bill, which was first introduced in 2008, was more than what was required to have the bill passed.
Alasoadura said that he experienced intense lobbying and intrigues from those who did not want the bill to see the light of day.
According to him, the hurdles did not allow it to pass through the 6th and 7th Assembly despite the transparency and accountability it offers in the management of the nation’s petroleum resources.
His words :”The bill establishes a framework for the creation of commercially oriented and profit driven entities that ensure value addition and internalization of the country’s petroleum industry.
“The politics behind it, is more than what you have to do to get the bill passed. In fact, there was a day I was abused by a set of people who came to lobby me for the bill not to be passed.
“Unless you can withstand pressure, you won’t be able to do what I did. And by the time we were to take the bill to the floor of the House for passage, we booked three days ahead because we thought it will be stormy.
“The South South wants everything, the North does not want it. So, when it comes to the floor of the Senate, it will die because the Northern Senators outnumber the Southern senators.
“In the National Assembly, the politics there is different from that of your state. National Assembly is about lobbying. It’s about getting people to support you. If they don’t support you, if you bring the best bill to the floor of the Senate, it will die.”
He added that before the passage of the bill, 52 senators were already convinced and appended their signatures when they knew that all interests were mutually protected.
He however noted that the bill that was subtly lifted from the previous PIB that did not scale through the 6th and 7th Assemblies because of its voluminous nature but passed recently, is the Governance Bill.
“The Governance Bill is the father of all of them. So, we have passed the governance bill, we are now saying we will pass the Administration, Local Community and the Fiscal bills. The Local Community Bill is the most contentious.
“We are in the process of passing three other petroleum industry bills. That is the Administration bill, the Host Community and the Fiscal bill. And I am handling the fiscal personally by myself because that is where the money is.
“I mean everything that will bring money to this country, it is in the fiscal bill that it will be regulated. So, I am saying that my other colleagues can help with the other two, the administration and the local community bills”.
