Prof. Akin Oyebode

A university Don, Professor Akin Oyebode has said that the allocation of three per cent revenue to oil producing communities under the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill PIB is a pittance and unfair.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday assented to the bill passed about one month ago by both chambers of the National Assembly, thus ending nearly 20-year debacle over the passage of the bill, which has generated much tension and ill-feelings over the years. The Petroleum Industry Act provides a legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for Nigeria’s petroleum sector, the development of host communities, and related matters.

In an interview monitored on Channels TV, Monday, the Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, also observed that the smuggling in of communities where pipelines passed to partake in the 30 per cent profit sharing was like being ‘clever by half’.

He faulted the allocation of three per cent operating expenditure of oil firms to host communities, who bear the brunt of oil production activities, describing it a pittance and unfair, insisting that such percentage amounts to nothing compared to the sufferings of the people of the affected areas.

He said: “Three per cent is a pittance for the people who suffer the encumbrances of oil production with the concomitant effects of ravaged environment, and then the fact of the unpleasantness of heat coming from fires, cancer and other things ravaging the people inhabiting the area, need to be compensated for.

“I think we have to recognise that what we really have are oil-bearing areas, they are not oil-producing but areas which bear oil, and the relationship between the International Oil Companies and the oil-bearing communities needs to be straightened out.

“We all agree that the oil-bearing areas are the geese that lay the golden eggs, so they have to survive, and they have to be cushioned and defended from the vagaries of oil production. “Trying to smuggle in people in territories where oil pipelines pass, I think it is being clever by half.”

 “We must be able to separate issues. It is taking such a long time to have the PIB, so we should not throw away the baby with the bathwater, as people say. So, it is a fine place to start to see whether we need further amendments of the PIB going forward in order to make progress.

While reacting to the criticisms that trailed the passage of the current version of the law, the Prof said the decision of President Buhari to give his assent to the bill was a right step in the right direction, arguing that whatever needed to be altered or reviewed in the law could be done through the amendment of the relevant sections.

He argued that no legislation the world over is perfect, as there might be need to review and amend certain sections as time goes on and as the occasion demands.

The House of Representatives had in a motion approved for the host community fund to be amended from the 2.5 per cent presented, to five per cent while the Senate passed at the bill at three per cent.

The act also makes provision for 30 per cent of oil profits to be invested into the frontier funds for the exploration of oil in the northern part of the country and other frontier basins. The money is expected to be paid into the escrow account and if not used, it will be returned to the treasury.

Meanwhile, there was outrage yesterday over President Buhari’s signing into law of the PIB.

Specifically, stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, including the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Ijaw National Council, INC, described as unacceptable the signing of the bill despite the public outcry against certain insertions in the law, which they described as injurious to the development of the region.

But the Senate and speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, have insisted that the new legislation was the best thing to happen to the oil and gas industry in the country.

While the Senate argued that the new PIB will bail Nigeria out of its present economic predicament, Gbajabiamila said it will engender investments and transparency which would enhance the industry.

On the signing of the bill, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, said in a statement: “Working from home in five -day quarantine as required by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after returning from London on August 13, 2021, the President assented to the bill on Monday, August 16, in his determination to fulfil his constitutional duty.