Incoming National Assembly may not pass PIB – Senator

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmad Lawan, has expressed fears that the Petroleum Industry Bill may not be passed by the incoming eighth National Assembly if the contentious issues in the document are not addressed.

Lawan, in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Monday, explained that the bill was rejected by the sixth and seventh National Assembly because some of the provisions side-lined a section of the country.

He also explained that the draft bill arrogated too much powers to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, a situation he argued was abnormal.

Lawan said, “The Petroleum Industry Bill was left pending in the sixth and seventh National Assembly and may be left pending in the eighth Assembly if the bill is not drafted properly. I participated fully in the sixth and seventh Senate and I discovered that there are so many contentious provisions and clauses in the PIB.
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“We argued against the passage of the bill if those clauses remained in the document.”

He, however, expressed optimism that the incoming administration of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) would revisit the issue in the overall interest of all Nigerians.

The senator said, “I think the new government will have an opportunity to take a holistic look at the provisions and clauses in the draft PIB. We will either achieve a compromise after a serious horse-trading and trade-off, or make the bill a more pan-Nigerian document so that every part of Nigeria will feel accommodated.

“Currently, the bill does not accommodate some parts of Nigeria and that is an issue. For instance, so much power has been given to the Minister of Petroleum Resources to the extent that the minister has more powers than the President.”

Lawan argued that there were so many things against the bill and that his constituency would query him if he supported its passage in its current form.

He said, “We represent our constituencies in the National Assembly; I account for my actions when I get back home. There is no way I can be part of the PIB passage without getting some of the issues resolved.

“We have to go through the same process of passing the bill but I believe that, this time around, there will be justice for everyone since the APC is in control.”