Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, says it is appalling that six years down the line the Petroleum Industry Bill is still in the works while the nation’s economy suffers due to delay in its passage.
Governor Amaechi said this today when the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) led by its Chairman, Hon. Ishaka Bawa, visited him in Government House, Port Harcourt.
Represented by his deputy, Engr. Tele Ikuru, Governor Amaechi noted that “anyone who hears about the PIB and the fact that it has been on the table of the National Assembly or between the Federal Government and the National Assembly for well over six years now from the time it commenced will be thoroughly worried; I say worried because 80 percent of our total revenue comes from the oil sector,” pointing out that “as far as we are concerned the oil sector where our revenue comes from should also be where our major jobs should come from”.
Regretting that “we as a people are not players in the oil industry, something must be thoroughly wrong,” the Governor, who is also Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) stated that “a bill of this nature should not stay more than one or two months wherever it finds itself,” asserting that due to the importance of the bill it should be given accelerated attention.
“It is so important, it goes to the heart of this country, it goes to the heart of the economy of this country and for a bill that is at the heart of the economy of this country, for a bill that we all depend on to be wobbling over and over it simply means that perhaps we have missed our direction as a people,” he observed.
He urged the committee members to “expedite action because it is very important,” lamenting that the “country that has been producing crude oil for almost sixty years still imports petrol to run its vehicle, imports kerosene to light its stove, imports diesel to run its factories. It is amazing that the people whose backyard where these things are taken every day still live in absolute penury and nobody is worried,” encouraging them to “expedite action on the bill and allow your name to be written eventually in gold as it concerns the economy of this country”.
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, who is also the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ishaka Bawa, told the Governor that they were in the State to give the people the opportunity to make ccritical inputs into the process of passing the PIB into law, noting that “instead of having discussions on the PIB only on the floor of the House we decided to bring it to the open and offer Nigerians the opportunity to make inputs into the process,” assuring that “the decision of Nigerians will prevail at the end of the day2.
