Senate
President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said the National
Assembly will continue to mount necessary pressure to get
presidential assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill.
Saraki spoke at a dinner organised as part of activities at the
ongoing 24th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the dinner which ended
late in the night was attended by trade experts, industrialists,
Small and Medium Enterprises operators and financial experts among
other dignitaries.
According to Saraki, the resolve by the legislature to mount
pressure to ensure the bill gets presidential assent has become
necessary, given its importance to the development of the oil and
gas sector in Nigeria.
NAN reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had withheld assent
on the PIGB following its passage by the National Assembly.
The President had also communicated its decline of assent to the
PIGB 2018, citing constitutional and legal reasons in the bill.
The Senate president said that it was unfortunate that the bill
had not been assented to, adding “we took it as a responsibility to
drive that bill to a level it has never been in a decade’’.
“That bill, a lot of people when we started said we cannot do
it, but we demonstrated we have the political will and the
commitment to do it.
“We passed the governance bill and it went to the executive.
“What I expected considering the kind of work that was done was
for us both arms to sit down because the issues that were raised
are not issues that are not surmountable.
“Unfortunately, after so many months, the bill has come back
with a query, that can easily be trashed out in a day session.
“Those in the petroleum sector will agree with me that they have
never seen the engagement we saw in the governance bill.
“Secondly, we had the fiscal bill and we have taken it to the
point that has never been archived, but I believe a lot of the
operators will want to ask what will happen to the fiscal bill if
the governance bill was not assented to.
“Our intention is to go back to the executive and sit down with
them in the interest of Nigeria.
“This is a very good bill as most operators and the technical
people in the sector commended it.’’
He said the observation made on the bill was not enough reasons
to stop its assent because of the huge positive impact it would
make on investments in the sector.
“Because as you know, there is no serious investment going in
the oil and gas sector because people are not sure of what to
expect.’’
(NAN)