Nigerian lawmakers have announced they are going on a three-week Easter break at a time Nigerians have hoped the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be passed into law.
The leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives on March 24, 2021, announced they were going on a break to resume plenary on April 13, 2021.
Nigeria’s Federal Government had promised Nigerians that the over two decades late PIB would be passed in April 2021.
The continued delay in passing (PIB) into law is creating uncertainties. These uncertainties delay the take-off of fresh projects worth several billions of dollars that would grow industry capacity and Nigeria’s reserves.
Easter Sunday, that is, April 4, 2021, marks the day that Christians remember the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This action of the lawmakers has again raised doubts about the possibility of passing the PIB in April, as promised. The doubts arose from the fact that this piece of legislation still has a long way to go before it becomes law in Nigeria.
Two months after the public hearing on the PIB, committee chairpersons from both chambers of the National Assembly are yet to submit their reports for consideration.
On January 26, 2021, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker, House of Representatives, said the bill would be considered and passed into law by April this year, at the House’s public hearing on the PIB. “We intend to pass this bill by April. That is a commitment we have made. Some may call it a tall order, but we will do it, and we will do it with every sense of responsibility,” Gbajabiamila said.
Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, also promised on behalf of the Federal Government that the bill would be passed in April.
Read Also: The PIB: Panacea to the ills of Nigeria’s Oil industry?
He made the statement on the sidelines of the ground-breaking and foundation laying ceremony of the headquarters building of the Department of Petroleum Resources in Abuja on January 28, 2021.
“The PIB that has defied passage or assent in the past 20 years is now before the National Assembly. It is at the committee stage in both houses and they asked us to attend the public hearings. So, it is our hope that the PIB will be passed by March or April this year,” Sylva said.
Experts attribute the current delay by the lawmakers to what they describe as “bureaucratic bottlenecks and political intrigues by vested interests.’
These experts have said that the majority of Nigerians would want the bill passed into law. But a significant number of persons are determined to have their personal interest protected by making sure the bill does not see the light of the day.
According to reliable sources, some powerful forces within and outside the government are doing everything possible to frustrate the passage of the bill.
Two Niger-Delta chieftains, former Senate leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba and a one-time gubernatorial aspirant in Bayelsa State and former federal permanent secretary, Godknows Igali, expressed worry over the delay in the passage of the PIB.
Ndoma-Egba expressed surprise that the relevant committees had not submitted their reports to both chambers of the National Assembly fr clause-by-clause consideration two months after the public hearing.
According to Ndoma-Egba, the PIB when passed into law would make the oil and gas industry very competitive. He also admitted that the need to accommodate all vested interests might be part of the reasons for the delay in the passage.
Although the PIB has scaled 1st and 2nd readings at both the Chambers and gone through Public Hearing stage, it still needs longer route before becoming a law.
Here are the remaining processes
Committee Clerks of both the Chambers’ joint Committees on Petroleum Resources (upstream), Petroleum Resources (downstream) and Gas Resources compile all the submissions made at the Public Hearing
Each committee Clerk writes the Report including inserting agreed new portions in the Bill. The proposed Bill will have three columns – Column one contains the proposed bill, column two contains the new amendments being sought, column three contains the remarks.
Each Committee’s Clerk submits the report and amendments to his or her committee chairman.
Committee chair submits to House/Senate at plenary
House/Senate fixes date for consideration of the Bill this time at the “Committee of the Whole.”
Once the Bill is laid at plenary at the conclusion of the Committee’s work, the committee hands-off, and the remaining stage of the bill is handled by the Committee on Rules and Business, which schedules the Bill for consideration/debate and passage.
Then there is clause-by-clause consideration by each Chamber. Here the members can add, delete or amend any section of the bill.
Third reading
Bill is sent to the other chamber for consideration, for example, Senate to Reps vise-versa.
Consideration by the other chamber
Conference meeting and submission of conference report to both chambers by the conference committee.
Consideration of the report of the Senate and House Joint Committee, otherwise called Conference committee. The duty of this committee is to harmonise areas of disagreement by the two Chambers and produce one uniform bill.
This is followed by the final reading and passage by each chamber. Thereafter, the passed bill will be sent to the National Assembly legal department for further action. Thereafter, the Clerk of the National Assembly will transmit the bill to the President for assent. The president will have 21 days to either sign or withhold his assent.
In the case of the latter, the president would write to both Chambers given reasons for his action. During the 21 days period, members of the public and interested parties can advise the president against signing the bill into law by raising strong points of law, which could include conflict with any existing legislation including the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The president would only sign the bill into law if there are no cogent and verifiable reasons against the PIB.
It is important to state that the period between each of the stages above are not fixed and cannot be determined, as it depends on the disposition of the leadership, particularly the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate president.
By the Senate and House Rules, no issue including Bill can be brought before the chamber or discussed at plenary without the approval of the presiding officer.
Reacting to the fears, chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) and member of the PIB Committee, Albert Bassey, said no challenge would make them not to pass the bill as planned.
“There are no challenges because both the executive and the legislature and the stakeholders are on the same page this time around,” Bassey said.
A member of the House Committee on PIB, Mohammed Monguno, told BusinessDay, “This PIB, we are going to do everything within our power to see that we lay it on the floor of the House in the next one and half months. So, give and take, we are looking at two months.”
The road to the passage of the PIB has been a tortuous one spanning over 20 years.
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