PIB: The Perambulation Continues- Nigerian Misguided Optimism
By
Uche Igwe
I was invited to a roundtable on the Nigerian Petroleum
Industry Bill organised by the Africa Studies Department of the Johns Hopkins
University in Washington DC on the 3rd of November 2010. During the panel
discussion, I alerted the audience that what the Nigerian government intended
to do (at that time) was simply a Petroleum Industry Perambulation (PIP). I
explained that the government wanted to take unsuspecting citizens through a
deceptive, torturing, time consuming and money guzzling journey in the name of
reforms. The journey, I warned, would begin from point A and after many months
(even years) of rigmarole, travellers will find themselves back at point A
where they started. Almost two years has passed since I made that speech and
sadly I still find no reason whatsoever to review my position. My view still
remains that contrary to sponsored rhetoric, the Nigerian government has no
intention of reforming the oil and gas industry. The recent submissionof the
Petroleum Industry Bill is yet another calculated effort, by a government whose
credibility and legitimacy is waning by the day, to
hoodwink Nigerians. Let me give you three reasons that led
me to this sad conclusion.
The first is to draw your attention to the personality who
is supposedly heading the reform team on behalf of Nigerian government
–
Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke. This Petroleum minister is a
former Director of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation. This is a clear
conflict of interest as Madam Minister will be torn between favouring her
former employers and the government that she is currently serving. For a sector
that is the heartbeat of our national economy, how can we rely on such a person
to be fair and patriotic in the conduct of such a sensitive assignment? Close
observers
in the industry believe that Shell is one of the biggest
beneficiaries of the murky state of the Nigerian oil industry that an effective
PIB seeks to sanitize; they will there
fore stop at nothing to resist any form of reform. The still
birth attempt of the sixth National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill
was allegedly truncated in a guerrilla ambush that had strong foot prints of the
International Oil Companies. In 2010, leaked US cables quoted Ann Pickard, the
then Vice President of Shell for Africa as having boasted about how Shell
seconded employees to infiltrate all relevant government agencies to know
everything going on in the inner circles. Pundits are already pointing fingers
as to those who could be on this unpatriotic assignment.
optimists suggest that the expected reforms will convert
NNPC from its current form as
a cost centre to a profit centre. Until the NNPC seizes to
be an appendage of the executive arm of government and an epicenter of
patronage, no such reform can see the light of the day. The KPMG Report of 2010 details manipulative opacity, deliberate
duplicity, self-inflicted inconsistencies and corruption within the NNPC
network. In the name of data mismanagement, variable crude oil sales and exchange
rate fluctuations, millions of dollars are siphoned daily from the coffers of
NNPC to elsewhere. Is it not myopic to expect the alleged beneficiaries of the
status quo to reform their biggest source of income and influence? Anyone who
wants to reform NNPC should first consider reforming our politics. Under the
nose of these same characters, trillions of naira leaked away in the name of
fraudulent fuel subsidy payments. Even when part what transpired is now in the
public domain, those allegedly indicted have not been prosecuted. How can we
rely on the same government that could not do the right thing in the downstream
subsector to now perform miracle upstream? Is this not an imprudent effort to
douse the odour already oozing out the industry? The depth of decay discovered
so far appears too colossal for the brand of tokenism touted by these ‘reformers’.
My third and final point is about the National Assembly. I have tremendous
respect for the parliament as an institution, however the recent conduct of
affairs in the hallow chambers have inspired little confidence among observers.
By parliamentary procedure, the Petroleum Industry Bill handed over by the
executive becomes the property of the parliament. It is expected that in their wisdom,
they will include or exclude whatever they deem necessary and consistent with
national interest. As things stand now, can anyone comfortably attest to the
fact that our parliamentarians will rise above personal greed in pursuit of
what will benefit the nation and the common good of citizens? For many, the
antecedents of the current Nigerian parliament point to the contrary. Farouk
Mohammad Lawan and the ostrich game on the subsidy probe bribery saga is the
sad picture that an average member of the Nigerian parliament conjures. How can
we then rely on them to deliver an Act that will reform the most important
source of revenue to our national economy? Do
the legislative and executive arms of government converge on
such matters of urgent national
Importance? Can we trust them to muster the level of
commitment and vigilance such an impactful law demands? I have looked at other
bills that have been passed and they lack both depth and seriousness and some
of them are filled with avoidable inconsistencies as if the drafters were reached
and compromised by those who do not wish this country well.
leaders are completely impervious to its implications to our
national life. As the uncertainty in our oil and gas industry persists, oil
thirsty investors continue to move to other parts of Africa with new discoveries
and a predictable legal and regulatory atmosphere. History is beckoning on
President Jonathan. He should assign a minister with minimal baggage to lead the
oil and gas reforms and immediately loosen the executive grip on NNPC, if he
wants Nigerians to take him and his reform seriously. The current executive legislative
disharmony must thaw as both arms of government unite around issues of urgent
national importance such as this PIB. Our parliamentarians yet have another
golden opportunity to restore their battered image before the citizens by
prioritising national interest above primordial antics and sincerely delivering
to us a Petroleum Industry Act that will comprehensively reform the sector and
move our nation forward. They must seize it. The other option of course, is to
continue the unfortunate perambulation.
Uche Igwe is a governance expert and wrote from Institute of
Development Studies, University ofSussex.
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