Disagreement over Host Community Fund stalls PIB - Senate

This Senate has attributed the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to disagreement over the Host Community Fund.

The Senate said this as it rejected calls by former group managing directors (GMDs) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to increase the price of fuel.

Specifically, the Senate described the former NNPC GMDs enemies of government, responsible for the persistent fuel price increase during their tenure at the Corporation.

Former GMDs of the NNPC had at the weekend called for an upward review of the price of Premium Motor Spirit (also known as petrol), stating that the present price cap of N145 per litre was not in line with current economic realities.

According to a statement by the NNPC, the former GMDs stated this at a day meeting with Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the NNPC, and the immediate past GMD and current minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, in Abuja.

The former GMDs said the PMS price cap of N145 per litre was not congruent with the liberalisation policy, especially with the foreign exchange rate and other price determining components such as crude cost, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) charges, among others, remaining uncapped.

The former GMDs at the meeting, according to the NNPC, include ‎the minister of state for petroleum/immediate past GMD, Ibe Kachikwu, Edmund Daukoru, Odoliyi Lolomar, Thomas John, Lawrence Amu, Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, Funsho Kupolokun, Abubakar Yar’Adua, Joseph Dawha, and the incumbent GMD Maikanti Baru.

Reacting to the development on Monday, Senate spokesperson, Sabi Abdullahi, said the experts do not have the moral justification for such advice, explaining they contributed to the hardship being faced by Nigerians due to hike in fuel price. This, he said, has led to increase in goods and services in the country.

“As far as I’m concerned, they (former GMDs) are sent to destroy this government. We will not allow them to do that because right now, Mr President is grappling with inherited problems. He is trying his best to see that things are changed,” Abdullahi said.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to listen to the advice, adding that doing so would further worsen the hardships that Nigerians were currently going through.

The Senate also attributed the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to disagreement over the Host Community Fund. The bill, christened Petroleum Industry Governance Bill in the Senate, has been stalled due to divergent interests by stakeholders on the development.

According to Abdullahi, the Senate would give accelerated legislative action on the bill upon resumption, September 20, saying the bill would be passed in clusters, rather than as a whole.

The PIB is the longest standing bill in the National Assembly, having being there since 2007.

“The Senate is already primed because most experts have submitted that we need to do something about the PIB. And you know the Senate was billed in our own wisdom, rather than take the whole hog of PIB, to turn in to about one or two components, we wanted to take the management framework but because of the sensitivity of the host community relationship and benefit sharing issue, that issue met some brick wall even before it went ahead.

“And so, we thought it wise to keep it down. But I’m convinced beyond reasonable doubt that by the time we come back from recess that issue will still get a front burner attention because it’s key to whatever changes we want to see done, going forward on a sustainable basis in the oil and gas industry,” the Senate spokesman said.

Speaking further about the advice of the GMDs, he said: “All of them that are speaking do not have the moral standpoint to even advise us on what to do because they had a hand in it. And I cannot see how you can solve a problem under the same condition that created it”, the federal lawmaker told journalists in Abuja.

He went on: “So, no matter how well intentioned their advice is, it’s unfortunate that it is coming from that particular group of people because they have been part of the mess all along. I can’t see how they clean themselves out of the mess that is presently in the oil and gas sector. So, to my mind, they should have made their advice underground. But to come out in that strong manner, I see it as a slap on us because they are responsible for what we are getting. If they had left a legacy of a solid institutional base for the oil and gas industry, we wouldn’t have been in this situation today. You increase the price and add up to the crisis that Mr President is handling, is that the way to go about it?

“No matter how well intentioned their aim is, while we trace the historical milestone of this organisation down the line and to see that these people at the individual levels have been responsible for the period of unaccountability, deep leakages that has characterised that industry. For them to come out today and tell us that this is what needs to be done, I don’t think they have sat down to think through what they were saying. They don’t have the moral foundation to advise us on what to do because they are responsible for where we are”.

He expressed regret that the nation’s refineries were yet to be fixed while new ones are yet to come on stream to meet local production.

“It you look at the arithmetic, if things had been well, it is now that Nigerians are even suppose to enjoy because the price of petroleum has crashed. If we are going to get the pains of not getting enough forex, we should have gotten the joy of having a lower price of petroleum product, which we are not getting right now because the institutional base for it which the NNPC fully represents, has been destroyed over the years by these same people who assembly to advise”.

The senator cautioned the Federal Government against aggravating an already complicated economy by contemplating further increase in the price of fuel.

He berated the GMDs for being responsible for the current woes that the country is going through, noting that the suggestion by the GMDs is a slap on the faces of Nigerians.