| PIB: In defence of Niger Delta KAYODE KETEFE A lot of theories have been offered on the reason why the extant Petroleum Industry Bill has remained in the legislative cooler for four years despite its acclaimed potentiality to revolutionise the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The often bandied reason for its non-passage into law included the alleged conspiratorial manipulation by the oil and gas capitalistic vested interests of both local and foreign provenance who are said to be surreptitiously working to make the proposed legislation a stillborn. But another glimpse was afforded into the wherefores of non-passage of the revolutionary bill on the last day of the year 2012, which offered a complementary, if not alternative reason, why the proposed law has been in hibernation. This vista was open last Monday by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Sen. Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, who revealed that the North geo-political zone of the country is opposed to the bill on the grounds of its alleged "lopsidedness." The Northern zone's grouse, according to Abba-Ibrahim, has to do with a clause in the bill which makes provisions for additional 10 per cent revenue for oil producing communities. Abba-Ibrahim's logic on the opposition to the bill rests on the warped perception that the Niger Delta region has already got more than enough share from the proverbial national cake and should therefore aspire no further. The legislator said, "Derivation is only one out of seven sources of revenue for the oil producing states." Therefore he opined the zone should not be offered any additional advantage on platter of gold via the PIB. The other six sources of additional revenue exclusively available to the Niger Delta zone, in additional to the common FG monthly allocations, as Abba-Ibrahim said, included the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) with over N500bn resources; the Niger Delta Ministry with over N400bn Federal Government grants in the name of amnesty and the Corporate Social Responsibility being unleashed on the zone by the oil companies. "Another 10 per cent to the already existing revenue generators for the zone would be unfair." Abba-Ibrahim concluded. But the most bizarre part of this Senator's submission is that part containing the following awkward rationalisation, "Nobody planted or farmed oil, it is God, who put it there" His lamentation merely re-echoed the dark side of Nigerian politicking, showing how we allow politics to corrupt our perception and appreciation of issues. Why should an economically salutary bill like the PIB be delayed because a particular region might benefit "more than others"? Is it even logically and morally correct to say that the Niger Delta has got more than enough and should be entitled to no more benefits? Several years of unconscionable exploitation of crude oil with no concomitant sustainability and ethical programmes by the multinational oil companies had left most parts of Niger Delta region ecologically degraded, with both fauna and flora endangered, the land infertile, the rivers and all in-dwelling lives poisoned and the people impoverished. This, coupled with the Federal government's infrastructural neglect of the area in spite of billions of dollars realised every year from the oil exploitation, constituted callous human rights abuse which no meager handouts in the form Niger Delta Ministry et al can atone for. Furthermore would the region not have got substantially far more than "additional ten percent" if we are practising genuine federalism where the regions claim their resources and only remit certain agreed percentage to the central? Anybody with the knowledge of dynamics of ethnic militia in Nigeria would readily tell who is to be blamed for the emergence of the Niger Delta militia with all its attendant problems as well as the reasons why pacification efforts, which eventually spawned an entity like the Ministry of Niger Delta, became necessary. It is part of our history that the peaceful approaches adopted by great leaders like Ken-Saro-Wiwa et al was brutally repressed by the state. Saro-Wiwa, despite his non-violent struggles, was extra-judicially executed on November 10, 1995 alongside eight other Ogoni activists. In the light of the above, one is at pain hearing the legislator's reason why a section of the country is dragging its conservative feet on the passing of the beneficial bill because it contains relatively more benefits for Niger Delta. For avoidance of doubt, the bill introduces a number of landmark reforms. It has created a one stop legislative shop encompassing all the previous legislations on the petroleum industry by combining all 16 different Nigerian petroleum laws in a single document which has transparency as its thematic focus. The PIB establishes the legal and regulatory framework, institutions and regulatory authorities, as well as stipulating guidelines for operations in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian petroleum industry. The issues of Nigerian contents health, safety and environment and fiscal provisions are also contained therein. The bill also introduces greater transparency into the Nigerian oil sector that has been bedeviled by opaqueness, as well making institutions in the oil sector, both old and new ones, more efficient. That is the bill a sizeable number of Nigerian politicians are trying to kill, delayed or at least denature all in the name of ethnic politicking.
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