Energy

Buhari yet to get PIGB for assent – Ita Enang

Published

8 years ago

May 16, 2018

Contrary to insinuations that part of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) has been passed to law, the bill, National Daily gathered is yet to be transmitted to the president by the National Assembly for his assent.

Special Adviser to the president on National Assembly matters, Ita Enang in a statement on Wednesday said the bill is still undergoing standard operating legislative processes of the National Assembly preparatory to transmission.

Recall that on March 16, Tayo Alasoadura, chairman, senate committee on petroleum resources (upstream), said the PIGB would presented for presidential assent on March 30.

But nothing was heard about the assent until Senate President Bukola Saraki tweeted one month later that it had been transmitted to the president.

“After 18 years, President Muhammadu Buhari, has finally received the harmonised copy of the #PIGB from the 8th national assembly,” he wrote on Twitter.

Years after the original bill, called petroleum industry bill (PIB), was sent to the National Assembly in September 2008, lawmakers said there were different versions in circulation.

The senate passed its own in May 2017 while the House of Representatives passed its eight months later.

The president has to give assent to the bill before it becomes law.

Under the PIGB as passed by the senate, NNPC will be divided into three main companies: the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission, which will regulate the sector; the National Petroleum Company (NPC) and the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company (NPAMC).

The NPAMC will take control of NNPC’s upstream assets while NPC will be in charge of crude oil marketing and refining.

PIGB is one of the four segments that the PIB was split into to speed up the passage of the omnibus bill into law.

PIB has been in the works since the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who handed over power in 2007.