By Admin
President Muhammadu Buhari has ignored calls by key stakeholders die fairness and justice as he signed the Petroleum Industry Bill ( PIB) into law.
This is coming weeks after the National Assembly passed the bill into law.
The Petroleum Industry Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.
The bill had remained at the National Assembly for more than a decade, with successive sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives failing to approve its provisions of sweeping reforms for the oil and gas sector.
However, after over a decade, the bill’s eventual passage on July 15 was dimmed by a controversy over the allocation of three per cent revenue to host communities in the Niger Delta, while a fund for the exploration of oil in frontier basins, mostly in northern states, received 30 per cent.
While this provision was rejected by the Southern Governors’ Forum and leaders of the South-south region, including a former minister, Edwin Clark, leaders of the region clamoured for 10 per cent, or in the minimum, five per cent as earlier passed by the House of Representatives.
Mr. Femi Adesina, the President’s Senior Special Adviser on Media in a statement said the bill was signed by the president at home because he was ” observing a five-day quarantine as required by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after returning from London on Friday August 13”.
” The President assented to the Bill Monday August 16, in his determination to fulfill his constitutional duty.
“The ceremonial part of the new legislation will be done on Wednesday, after the days of mandatory isolation would have been fulfilled.”
