Nigeria's petroleum minister, Deziani Allison-Madueke has said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been unduly politicized and personalized in many quarters.
Even though she insisted that the PIB provides a win-win situation for oil companies, the federal government and relevant stakeholders, the Niger and Kaduna state governors, Mu'azuBabangida Aliyu and Mukhtar Ramalan Yero and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) faulted the enormous powers granted the petroleum minister.
Nigeria's petroleum minister, Deziani Allison-Madueke has said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been unduly politicized and personalized in many quarters.
Even though she insisted that the PIB provides a win-win situation for oil companies, the federal government and relevant stakeholders, the Niger and Kaduna state governors, Mu'azuBabangida Aliyu and Mukhtar Ramalan Yero and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) faulted the enormous powers granted the petroleum minister.
Aliyu and Yero also rejected the 10 per cent Petroleum Host Communities Fund, both contentious provisions contained in the PIB.
The disclosures were made to the Senate Joint Committees on Petroleum Downstream, Upstream, Gas, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters at the Public Hearing on the PIB held at the National Assembly
last week in Abuja.
The petroleum minister told the Senate committee that the PIB if passed will be fully operational in approximately seven years. Allison-Madueke stated that contrary to notions in select quarters, the PIB has reduced the powers of the petroleum minister.
Allison-Madueke: "Full and efficient implementation of any law as robust as the PIB takes a number of years. You cannot pass or promulgate a bill into law overnight and that is quite obvious. But a complex one that has many facets to it takes a number of years for full implementation in all its ramifications.
By the time your National Oil Company is fully up and running, working seamlessly, we are talking about four, five or, six years down the road. By the other institutions and entities look forward, as delineated in this bill, are in full implementation and running as efficiently as we expect them to run, we are talking of six, seven years time down the road. By that time, President Goodluck Jonathan and the Petroleum Minister, Allison-Madueke, will not be in office. That is obviously clear. So this is not a bill that should be personalized or politicized."
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