NASS urges Buhari to present new PIB for early passage

The National Assembly on Monday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, transmit a new Petroleum Industry Bill to the National Assembly for early passage.

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, made the call at the opening of the National Assembly Dialogue on Economy, Security and Development in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day event is organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS).

Dogara, who said investment decisions in the petroleum sector could no longer wait, added that it was important for President Buhari as supervising Minister of Petroleum to transmit the bill as soon as possible.

He also noted that the transmission of the bill was crucial in view of the fact that in spite of the rapid drop in oil prices, oil and gas still accounted for 70 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

The Speaker, who lamented that all efforts to pass the bill in the past failed, gave assurance that the 8th National Assembly was ready to speedily pass it to reposition the petroleum industry.

“The PIB has had a chequered history: It was introduced late in the life of the 6th Assembly and was not passed.

“ In the 7th Assembly, a private Members Bill was introduced in the first month of that Assembly, based on the experience of the 6th Assembly.

“However, the last administration informally indicated that it would prefer an Executive Bill on the matter, which took over two years to materialise.

“It was passed only by the House of Representatives very late in its tenure without the Senate concurring.

“Contrary to the assertion that the size of the bill is the problem, the fact is that an early introduction will lead to an early passage,’’ he said.

Dogara expressed the national assembly’s readiness to partner with the executive arm of government to pass laws that would not only ensure positive but sustainable change.

He pledged that the anti-corruption legislation and over-sight would be the major contribution of parliament to the “change’’ that had come to Nigeria.

Today.ng