Civil Societies and Community Groups have raised alarm at the inherent gaps and danger in the moves to sign into law a Petroleum bill that is fraught with defects in the areas of environmental protection, Industry-standard regulation and preservation of the rights, health and livelihoods of local community members and urged President Muhammed Buhari not to sign the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, PIGB, as passed by the National Assembly until the grey areas were addressed.
In a 17-Point Position unanimously adopted by the Civil Societies and Community Groups from Bayelsa, Akwaibom, Rivers, Delta and Edo States at a Town Hall Meeting on the PIGB recently held in Port Harcourt, the Groups pointed out that the deliberate silence of the bill on the out-law of gas flaring with a definite date was not only ominous and a major set-back for the environment but also a big blow to the people of the Niger Delta who have been unjustly subjected to gas intoxication through mindless gas flaring for decades since the commencement of Petroleum exploitation in Nigeria.
The groups stated that they had hoped that the lawmakers would have used the opportunity created by the Petroleum legal regimes review to put an end to decades of the deplorable practice of gas flaring that has put Nigeria for decades into Hall of Environmental Shame by enacting clear-cut provisions for its criminalization and regretted that the failure of the National Assembly to do this effectively reinforces the region's feeling of oppression and State Injustice, adding that such acts by State Institutions as the National Assembly and the consequent sentiments would ultimately make peace and security elusive in the region.
The Groups which railed the fragmentation of the bill further pointed out that many of the provisions of the piece-meal bill were not in tandem with best practices as obtained in the global oil and gas industry positing that it was antithetical for Nigeria to seemingly be reviewing its Petroleum laws to streamline with global industry standards and at the same time be proposing legal provisions that were at variance with best standard practices. In the proposed law (Section 4), the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission is to take over and perform role currently played by the Petroleum Inspectorate, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the PPPRA.
According to Dr. Simon Amadougboha, legal expert and lead speaker at the Town Hall, "the Commission is thus saddled with functions that are at cross-purpose with each other. For example, Section 5(f) mandates the commission to "promote an enabling environment for investments in the Petroleum Industry" and in so doing "ensure that regulations are fair and balanced for all classes of Lessees, Licensees, permit Holders, Consumers and other Stakeholders".
A Commission with such mandate cannot by itself turn around to (Section 5(a), "ensure strict implementation of environmental policies, laws, regulations and standards as pertains to oil and gas operations".
They described as sad and an aberration, the rejection and deletion from the bill by the National Assembly, of all provisions that may give room for the Ministry of Environment to demand environmental compliance in the Petroleum Industry as rightly obtained in other parts of the World adding that NASS has by so-doing ousted the powers of the Federal Ministry of Environment over environmental issues in the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria.
The CSOs and Community Groups therefore reiterated that the President must take steps to ensure that these anomalies inherent in the bill were not allowed to stand as law in order to safeguard the lives and rights of the people of the region and its precarious environment as well as entrench proper regulatory standards and best practices in Nigeria's Petroleum sector to see to it that the Country sustainably harnesses the benefits of the Petroleum natural resource for its lasting growth and development
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