Reps Set To Pass Own Version Of PIB

Bode Gbadebo

— Jul 19, 2016 2:41 am | Leave a comment

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said that the House is determined to ensure the passage of its own version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law.

He disclosed this yesterday, in Abuja, at a national stakeholders’ summit on petroleum industry reforms organised by the House’s Committees on Petroleum Resources (upstream and downstream).

The Speaker said the 8th House was aware of several failed attempts at redeeming the petroleum industry by the previous Assemblies and assured that this time around, they would do everything within their powers to ensure its passage.

Dogara added 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.

He also noted that it is only when the PIB is passed that sanity would be brought to the petroleum industry, saying 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.”

The Speaker said the summit was organised to reach consensus and lend a voice to long suppressed agitations in the drafting and consideration of the PIB.

“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,” Dogara said.

The Speaker said 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 therefore 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 commence on it immediately.