President Muhammadu Buhari have signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021 into law.

The President in a statement through his spokesman, Femi Adesina, assented to the Bill on Monday, August 16, 2021 in his determination to fulfill his constitutional duty.

The ceremonial part of the new legislation will be done on Wednesday, after the days of mandatory isolation would have been fulfilled by the President. The now Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.

The Nigerian Senate had passed the Bill on July 15, 2021, while the House of Representatives did same on July 16, thus ending a long wait since early 2000s, and notching another high for the Buhari administration.

The passage of the PIB has proved to be a real nightmare for successive administrations since the need for the bill was first mooted by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

In 2018, after the national assembly passed a harmonised version of the bill — the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB), President Muhammadu Buhari refused assent due to “legal and constitutional reasons”.

The PIB contains 5 chapters, including governance and institutions, administration, host communities development, petroleum industry fiscal framework and miscellaneous provisions in 319 clauses and 8 schedules.

The Petroleum Industry Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.

On July 1, the senate and the house of representatives had recommended 3% and 5% percent respectively to host communities. This, however, generated reactions from stakeholders in the oil industry and leaders in the Niger-Delta region.

Several stakeholders including Seriake Dickson, senator representing Bayelsa west; Douye Diri, governor of Bayelsa state; Edwin Clark, an Ijaw national leader, have argued that three percent is unacceptable.

At the public hearing on the bill, representatives of the host communities had demanded that they be allocated 10 per cent on the grounds that three percentage is not enough to improve the standard of living of their people.

PIB assent not instant subsidy removal, says MOMAN

The signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law by President Muhammadu Buhari does not mean automatic removal of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy, according to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).

Reacting to the development, MOMAN Executive Secretary, Clement Isong said the assent does not amount to instant subsidy removal.

He said: “No… The HMSPR will provide transitional regulations leading to removal of subsidies.”

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva had said once Buhari signed the bill it means the removal of subsidy.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), National Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi commended the president for signing the bill.

He noted the new law will lead to the appreciation of the Naira and reduce the forex challenge in the industry.

PIB Will Make North Poorer, Says CNG

Earlier, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will create more hardships for ordinary Nigerians, especially those in the North if passed and implemented in its present form.

The spokesman of CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, who addressed journalists in Abuja, yesterday, said the bill is merely an extension of the elite monopoly of the total available economic activity in the country at the expense of ordinary northerners.

He said the passage of the bill is another clandestine move to further weaken the northern economy and warned that all northern representatives in the National Assembly (NASS) will be held responsible if they allow it to be passed into law.

Suleiman said, “The first concern here is bringing together agencies with supervisory roles with an agency that implements policy that is deliberately contradictory.

“Second, a self-funded agency (consumers’ funds) to be merged with government-funded agencies is yet another deliberate contradiction,” he said.

Suleiman, therefore, demanded a comprehensive investigation into alleged underhanded deals between a private operator of a refinery and some members of the National Assembly to influence the passage of the bill which would hand total monopoly of production, transportation and others.

He also called on the attention of the northern leadership and credible section of northern elders, civil society organisations (CSOs) to rise to defend the people of the region by rejecting the PIB.