The ninth National Assembly appears poised to break the jinx associated with the Petroleum Industry Bill sent to the sixth assembly by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2007, report Deji Elumoye and Shola Oyeyipo
So, it was heartwarming recently, when the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, assured Nigerians that the 9th Assembly would ensure that the bill was reintroduced and passed in earnest. “This time around, we will work with every stakeholder in the industry. Whatsoever it will take to make this Bill beneficial to Nigerians and the players, we will not hesitate. We demand your collaboration, we will work together in the interest of the country and everyone,” he added.
He noted that in the most recent dataset, services contributed over 50 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP while data from early 2018 showed oil contributed 87.7 per cent to foreign exchange. The National Bureau of Statistics in its 2017 report, put Nigeria’s total export earnings at N3.1tn for the second quarter of this year, oil and gas accounted for N2.43tn, which is 92 per cent while the non-oil sector accounted for the N670bn balance.
In his calculation, he noted that if Nigeria produces 800 million barrels per year at $45 per barrel, it goes to about $180 per person per year whereas Saudi Arabia which projected that it would produce four billion barrels each year, with its population put at only 30 million, the kingdom would produce $6,000 for every one Saudi citizen.
That much was corroborated by the Deputy Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Peter Akpatason, when he said recently that some powerful forces benefitting from a dysfunctional oil and gas sector of the economy are behind the high level politics responsible for the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill .
“The PIB is such a highly politicised project all the way from the executive, where it emanates and even right here in the National Assembly because there are a lot of contending factors – a lot of interests all over the place. He added that, “One single PIB will not help the case because that was what actually scuttled it in the first place when we placed everything together and some of the provisions were not acceptable to the government and because of those few provisions, they declined assent to that document.”
The global perception of the future of the Nigerian economy, which relies on oil, is filled with uncertainty, and this explains why many well-meaning Nigerians are staunch advocates of the ratification of the PIB. Going by the provisions of the bill, a fund is to be designated for the development of the economies and social infrastructure of the communities within the petroleum producing areas.
Though royalties are not contained in the bill, the minister is equipped with the right to change the system. For instance, the new system currently under examination makes the calculation of the royalty more complex. Though the NHT and CIT put together will generate less revenue than the old PPT, the new royalty regime promises to increase the level of revenue.
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