By Adeola Yusuf, Tunde Opeseitan and Akinwunmi King, Lagos
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon (middle); United Nations Population Fund Executive Director, Babatunde Oshotimehin (left); and Federal Capital Territory Minister, Bala Mohammed; at the Maitama General Hospital, Abuja ... on Sunday. Photo: Jide Oyekunle.
Nigeria’s economy is under threat with the foot-dragging on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) declared at the weekend, warning that the non-passage of the Bill will undermine growth.
The PIB has been in the National Assembly (NASS) since December 16, 2008.
NESG Director General, Frank Nweke, argued that the uncertainty in the oil sector, which has caused investors to divest or withhold new investment, will worsen. He spoke at the weekend as the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), implored President Goodluck Jonathan to stop the privatisation programme and probe the futile exercise.
The CNPP described privatisation as “the ‘Food is Ready’ economic policy adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a policy anchored on ‘share the money,’ which is antithetical to the Constitution.”
Nweke said in a statement that the non-passage of the PIB will constrain the implementation of power reform and the national gas master plan.
“Gas flaring will continue with the attendant loss of revenues, adverse environmental and health impact on our people. Sustainable funding of joint venture (JV) operations will remain a challenge and so will government efforts to ensure accountability within the sector,” he warned.
He urged the NASS to pass the Bill “for the sake of God and country,” adding that not doing so will mean that Nigerians “will not fully harness the benefits of the Local Content Act. It will further delay the much needed deregulation of the oil and gas sector.
“The atmosphere of uncertainty which has pervaded the sector since government first proposed the reforms and caused investors to either divest or withhold new investment will worsen. Development of new oil and gas fields will certainly be jeopardised.
“All of these will imperil the job creation efforts of government and endanger the amnesty programme. The aspiration of Nigerians to have a commercially viable, profitable, and well run national oil company will be dashed.
“The implication is that we will continue to have in operation parastatals in the sector whose operations are subsidised by the government with poor accountability. We will continue to import refined petroleum products and award endless turn around maintenance contracts for petroleum refineries the operators have no real interests in fixing.”
Nweke said reversing the decay in the key sectors constitutes the thrust of the transformation agenda of Jonathan, and the non-passage of the PIB therefore has implications for his government and for Nigerians who elected him.
According to him, the cost to tax payers and the implications of the current NASS not passing the Bill are huge, considering Nigeria’s federal legislature is one of the most expensive public institutions in the world.
“The non passage of this Bill will therefore be a double whammy for Nigerians as the incoming NASS would spend time and resources working on it anew and perhaps increase costs to Nigerian taxpayers because of the failure of the previous NASS to live up to its responsibilities.
“It can be envisaged that it may be a lot more difficult to have this Bill passed in a diversified NASS where party interests may trump national interests.
“Given, the complex and technical nature of this 345-page Bill, it may not take less than 18 months for the new legislature to settle down, form committees, consider the bill, host public hearings and hopefully pass it.
“By this time, the new administration will be half way through the Fifth Republic. At the risk of sounding alarmist, this will be disastrous for our economy, to say the least, and compromise growth and development in considerable ways.”
Another statement issued by CNPP National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, commended Jonathan for acknowledging a monumental scam after he went through the books of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and discovered how state owned enterprises were criminally converted to private enterprises.
He said many of the privatised companies "don’t seem to have fared better in private hands than they did in government hands apart from one or two, maybe the Eleme Petrolchemicals. What happens next – probe.”
CNPP asked Jonathan to stop privatisation and probe the scheme which has led to the loss of billions to the treasury, pervasive unemployment, and economic dislocation.
It urged him to take the war against corruption serious and to mandate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct a fresh probe of the privatisation exercise or publish his findings on the CNPP’s petition of December 10, 2007.
