Ajibola Muraina, chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill for the South East zone, said on Wednesday that the bill would boost the country’s revenue profile.
Muraina told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on the sidelines of the zonal public hearing on the bill in Enugu that the passage of the bill into law would also advance the country’s industrial potentials and create jobs for the youth.
“The only thing that we have in this country as of now which we are exploiting is the crude oil and 85 percent of the revenue by which we operate our budget are (is) coming from this same crude, so if there is a holistic legislation that takes care of all aspects of crude, petroleum, management and other things, the people will benefit from it.
“We are likely to have more revenue coming to the various aspects of the bill that will eventually come to the people, like this petroleum host community fund.
“Even in terms of other forms of revenue, it will be improved, so, whatever ramification you think about it, Nigeria is likely to benefit tremendously, economically.”
The chairman said the committee received eight memoranda from the governments and people of the zone.
Muraina, who represents Ibarapa Central/North Federal constituency in Oyo State, said the area of the bill most contested in the memoranda included the petroleum host community fund, frontier explorations and the power given to the minister.
“So far, we have received on the whole, eight memoranda but it is only the governments of Anambra and Enugu that made representation and presented memoranda on behalf of their people and their governments.
“For the states of Abia, Ebonyi and Imo, no memoranda were received from them. The door is not closed, we still expect that they can do so in due course, get them across to us at Abuja.
