A North-South clash is looming over the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly.
The central stage is the National
Assembly, where senators and members of the House of Representatives are
already sharply divided on the clause providing for the allocation of
10 per cent of oil revenue to oil-producing communities in the country.
Also joining the fray are leaders of the South-South, who have vowed to fight for the passage of the bill in its entirety.
The clash was sparked off by the
Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, who said on
Monday in Abuja that the North would oppose the PIB because it was
lopsided in favour of Niger Delta states.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party senator
reportedly described the PIB as “unfair and unacceptable,” especially
the contentious clause.
The senator said giving an additional 10
per cent of oil revenue to the oil producing communities in addition to
existing ones was inimical to the prevalence of peace in the country.
He said, “Derivation is only one out of
seven sources of revenue for the oil producing states. They have the
Federal Government’s take home, the NDDC with over N500 billion being
projects only in oil producing communities. They also have the Niger
Delta Ministry with over N400 billion; Federal Government grants in the
name of amnesty and oil companies doing social corporate responsibility.
“By adding another 10 per cent to the
seven sources, I don’t know how you are going to have peace where
resource allocation is so skewed to one side and unfair.’’
He received support on Thursday from
another Northern senator, Danladi Sankara from Jigawa State, who told
one of our correspondents on the telephone that the PIB must be stopped
because it was designed to satisfy sectional interest.
Sankara, who is a Peoples Democratic
Party senator, said that benefits accruable to the oil producing
communities should not be to the detriment of other parts of the
country.
“There is certainly no way the PIB will
pass the way it was sent. It is clearer that the way it was crafted,
only one section of the country is being favoured to benefit.
“While no one is saying they won’t
benefit, such benefits cannot be to the detriment of other sections; we
will not allow it. This country belongs to us all,” he declared.
But senators from the South, who reacted to the comments by Abba-Ibrahim and Sankara, disagreed sharply with them.
A senator from Abia North, Nkechi
Nwaogu, said the provision of 10 per cent revenue for oil producing
communities was not too much.
The senator warned that unless the host
communities were taken care of, the country could start having problems
that could hamper national development.
She said, “We cannot neglect the goose
that lays the golden egg. I support the way the clause was captured in
the bill. The figure of 10 per cent for host communities is not too
much.
“The environmental degradation in the
communities, is it happening across the country? If we don’t take care
of the communities and we start having problems, it will affect our
development.”
Also speaking, Senator George Sekibo
(PDP, Rivers) faulted his Northern counterparts on the issue, saying it
should be viewed from the perspective of the disturbing level of
environmental degradation in the oil producing communities.
Sekibo insisted that Nigerians should
look at the passage of the bill as a move to redress the environmental
degradation suffered by the Niger Delta because of oil production.
He said senators should see the bill as a
and not for a section like the HYPADEC bill that was passed to take
care of the problem of degradation in the hydro electric power
generation communities.
“The PIB that we have now is better than
what was given to us before. As for whether the 10 per cent being
proposed for oil producing communities is too much, that is not the
right sense of judgment.
“The right sense of judgment is how much
damage has been done to the environment in the last 50 years. In the
next 50 years, we may not have a habitable environment in these places.
As we speak, gas flaring is still going on with all the evils associated
with it.
“For those who argue that the NDDC and
the Niger Delta Ministry are already too much, I will say the NDDC was
set up to assist with the infrastructural development of these areas.
What has the Niger Delta Ministry done since apart from trying to do the
East West Road, which is an initiative of the Federal Government?”
Senator Aloysius Etok (PDP, Akwa Ibom)
urged the Northern senators to accept the PIB as a way of addressing the
injustice done to the people of the oil producing communities over the
years.
He said that it was wrong for anybody to
oppose the provision in the PIB meant to take care of the communities
which had suffered over 70 years of environmental degradation associated
with oil production.
He called on all senators from the North
to reciprocate the gesture of the southern senators who supported the
HYPADEC bill to take care of communities devastated by electricity
production.
“What is fair and equitable cannot be
wrong. Nobody should be afraid of doing the right thing because doing
the right thing can never be wrong.
“It is unfair for anybody to say that to
give 10 per cent to oil producing communities to help ameliorate their
plight is unfair.” he said.
An Action Congress of Nigeria senator
from Oyo State, Olufemi Lanlehin, said the clause providing 10 per cent
to the oil producing communities should be critically examined.
“Although I’m still studying the bill,
the issue of 10 per cent should be carefully treated. I think there
should be a holistic approach to the whole issue,” he said.
The situation is not different in the
House of Representatives, which has already passed the bill to the
committee stage for public hearing.
The Chairman, House Committee on
Rules/Business, Mr. Albert Sam-Sokwa (Taraba State ), supported the 10
per cent provision for oil-bearing communities.
Sam-Sokwa, who is the chairman claimed that those opposing the provision did so out of sentiment.
“Nobody should be heard complaining
about that money (10 per cent). This is not government but money that
will come from international oil companies making investment in Nigeria.
“It is to be used to address the
problems in oil communities like pipeline vandalism and oil theft.
People should read the bill properly before they oppose the provision or
condemn it.”
But his colleague from Enugu State, Mr.
Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, observed that the provision was skewed in favour of
only communities that could produce crude oil.
Ozomgbachi explained that what Nigeria
needed was a general provision that would be beneficial to “all
communities producing mineral resources, not oil alone.”
He spoke further, “What we need is a
general provision that sets aside a specified percentage of profit for
any community that produces any mineral; it can be five or 10 per cent
but let every mineral-producing community benefit.
“It is not only about oil, we need to
deemphasise oil. In the South-East, some states like Enugu have coal.
The communities there should be entitled to 10 per cent of the profit of
what they produce.
“Same for the South-West, there is
bitumen. Let them get their 10 per cent as well. In the North, let the
states there benefit from whatever mineral they produce.”
Another lawmaker from South-South zone,
Mr. Bassey Ewa, took a middle course, saying that Nigerians should be
allowed to decide whether the 10 per cent was necessary or not.
Ewa, who is the chairman, House
Committee on Gas Resources, told Saturday PUNCH that he was nominated as
one of the lawmakers to conduct a public hearing on the PIB.
“Let the Nigerian public decide what is
appropriate. This is why we are conducting a public hearing. It is not
for us as a committee to say whether the provision is appropriate or
not.”
Also speaking in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH, some South-South leaders expressed outrage at the growing opposition to the bill by the North.
Those who spoke include the Ijaw
National Congress, Mr. Robinson Esite; a former President of the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Mr. Ledum Mitee; and the
leader of the defunct Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Asari
Dokubo.
Dokubo said, “These people do not want
peace, they do not believe in negotiation; what they want is to take
what does not belong to them.
“We must stand to fight; the oil belongs to us; the people of the South-South, we want 100 per cent and not 10 per cent.
“When our political leaders don’t talk,
these people feel larger than life… For me, this is just a rant, they
are pushing us. The solution is for us to go back to fight.”
Esite, who described the comments as
unfortunate, warned that the privilege of sharing the oil resources of
the Niger Delta shouldn’t be abused.
“The oil is not a collective property;
it is the sole property of the Niger Delta and shared among Nigerians
out of care for neighbours. This privilege should not be abused by
whatever means and by whosoever.”
Also speaking, Mitee said, “It is
unfortunate if a regional position is taken on the PIB. A senator is
supposed to make laws for the good of the country and not for a region.
You don’t need to deal with PIB in a manner that suggests throwing the
baby away with the bath water.
“It is not good to give an ethnic
interpretation to the PIB. Most Nigerians have agreed that the PIB
should be passed into law. The communities are not getting the benefit
of the oil.
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