PIB: NIGERIA VS WORLD OIL GIANTS

Almost five years since it was drafted, the Nigeria Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is yet to become a law. The bill which was the brainchild of the Oil and Gas Sector Implementation Committee (OGIC) set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2002, was first drafted by the same committee later reconstituted in 2007 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to review the OGIC report and come up with a workable document. It was this effort that later translated into the formulation of the  Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which was expediently endorsed by the Federal Executive Council and subsequently sent to the National Assembly in August 2007 for their consideration and enactment into law.

Enactment of a new legal framework in the nation’s oil and gas sector was informed by government’s realisation of the huge losses accrued to the nation as a result of the loopholes in the existing legal framework governing the sector, which favours the oil companies more than the nation; the need to transform the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from a huge shapeless cost centre with conflicting roles in policy, regulation, and commercial operations into a full-fledged international, integrated commercial oil and gas corporation driven by revenue generation and profit objectives; as well as the need for a holistic review of the governing structure of the entire sector to make it truly serve the interest of the people. Moreover, in contrast to existing global trend in the oil sector, Nigeria’s fiscal terms are currently lenient compared to its peers, particularly countries like Libya which has 93% government take and UAE which is on an average of 94%, while Nigerian government share is much lower. Even under the proposed PIB, the government will only be raking an average of 73% to 82%, which is still lower than what is obtained in other countries of similar geological features.

As crucial as the bill is to the nation, which is envisaged to restructure the sector that provides more than 75% of the nation’s revenue, five years after it was drafted, the bill is still before the National Assembly and probably awaiting its third reading when the Senate resumes from its recess in September. The snail-pace and seeming reluctance in passing the bill may not be unconnected with the nefarious interests of the world oil giants operating in Nigeria, who realised that the new bill if passed would not favour them, and therefore prefer to maintain the status quo that has been in operation since the 1970s, and which gives them an upper hand in the industry.

Contrary to the existing fiscal system governing the nation’s oil sector, the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill introduces a number of changes, which includes the creation of the Nigerian Hydrocarbon Tax (NHT) that provides for a higher government take for offshore fields and a marginal higher take for onshore and shallow waters. The PIB also introduces a new land management system with stringent handover guidelines that would provide a platform for new local and foreign investors, to enlist and contribute to the growth of the industry. This simply means that companies currently operating in the country would be required to give back certain fields from existing oil prospecting licenses and oil mining leases, where production activities are yet to commence or which the companies are keeping to be developed in the near future to new investors in order to boost productivity.

Ultimately, the bill seeks to address the flagrant corruption in the oil and gas sector and ensure that Nigeria derives maximum benefit across oil and gas value chain by providing a level playing field for wider participation of stakeholders and entrenching transparency. In a nutshell, the new bill aims at reforming the country’s oil and gas sector by ensuring higher and more equitable gain for the country from its abundant oil resources, break the monopoly of a few multinational oil giants and provide opportunity for new investors as well as check the alarming level of corruption in the sector.

Naturally, the multinational oil barons, long accustomed with the lucrative ways of doing business in Nigeria would not be comfortable with the new law. Thus, the firm resistance by those oil companies to scuttle the successful passage of the bill. There have been media reports about the oil companies’ attempts to compromise Nigerian lawmakers and other opinion leaders among other high-level diplomatic manoeuvres, so that they can continue to reap the highest benefit. In this regard, there were even some reports recently, about alleged threats by some oil companies to sue the federal government over some provisions of the bill that reduce their profit and make the regulatory environment tighter. Basically the oil companies are determined to frustrate the successful passage of the bill or at least find a way of influencing its content so that they will remain at the winning end at the detriment of the nation.

The nation has over the years been losing billions of dollars to those oil companies who have been milking the nation for over 50 years, and are still determined to continue. This has to stop. It is however comforting that our leaders have realized the huge resources the nation loses as a result of the existing framework in the oil sector. It is also bolstering that our indigenous technocrats in the sector are firmly behind the PIB. It is now left for our lawmakers, who now have the ball in their court, to exhibit high sense of responsibility and patriotism. The lawmakers know more than any other Nigerian the depth of the murky waters in the nation’s oil and gas sector, a nuance of which was recently revealed to the public by the House of Assembly’s Oil Subsidy Probe. The National Assembly are therefore, expected to ensure thorough deliberations on the bill to make sure that the interest of the nation and the people are safeguarded. They should also make sure that the bill also addresses other critical issues in the oil sector, such as gas flaring, interests of the host communities, and environmental issues, among others.

It has become incumbent on the lawmakers to ensure the speedy and successful passage of the bill, which is also a golden opportunity for them to regain their lost public confidence following the recent unfortunate corruption scandals that threaded the National Assembly. It is time for Nigeria and Nigerians to reap more benefit from the abundant oil resources that God has endowed the country with, for the rapid socio-economic development of the nation.

NYSC: A POTENTIAL VICTIM OF THE NATION’S RISING INSECURITY

There have been raging discourse in recent years about the usefulness or otherwise of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) amidst some new and unfolding events in the country. Many argue that the initiative has over the years failed to achieve the very objectives behind its establishment while others think otherwise. More recently however, the rising security challenges that characterized much of the northern states as well as other parts of the country have further raised the scepticism of the people regarding whether the NYSC scheme is really fulfilling its purpose as well as regarding its sustainability in the future.

Since the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2007, some parts of northern Nigeria like Borno and Yobe states have become a no-go-area not only to visitors but even to some indigenes, a situation that continue to have a serious negative effect on the region’s socio-economic wellbeing. This unfortunate situation has recently forced the NYSC directorate to review some of its policies to allow the staging of NYSC orientation camp exercise for the affected states in other neighbouring states before the corps members could be assigned their various primary assignments in those states. And that’s not all, the directorate had to also loosen its laws to give the corps members the prerogative to chose either to serve in the states tagged as ‘security-challenged states’ or to apply for relocation elsewhere with an automatic endorsement.

However, in the year 2012, the NYSC scheme took a more dramatic dimension, following the spread of the terrorist activities from the north-east to some parts of the north-west. The list of the no-go-areas then multiplied to include states like Kaduna and Kano, which hitherto used to be toast of corps members, who were privileged to be posted there.

Sequel to the rising spate of coordinated bomb attacks targeting strategic military formations, places of worship and institutions of learning, that characterized Kano and Kaduna since the beginning of the year 2012, many parents from other parts of the country could not approve their children or wards being sent to the security-challenged states of Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Yobe, in the name of serving their country while putting their lives and the huge educational investment made on them at a great danger. This agitation led to the National Assembly’s directive for the relocation of any corps member posted to the affected states to other safer location. It is therefore, on this backdrop that more than 70% of the 2012 Batch B corps members posted to those crises-prone states applied and were given automatic approval for relocation to safer grounds.

This latest development has in no small measure undermined the basic aim behind establishing the NYSC scheme, which was ultimately to foster unity among the country’s diverse ethno-religious formations by sending Nigerian youths to different parts of the country other than their states of origin on a one year national service, in order to live with, understand and appreciate the cultures and traditions of other fellow countrymen. The event has also defeated the cardinal objective of the programme, which was to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community and to emphasize the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social background.

The very idea for this highly commendable effort towards imbibing high sense of nationalism and ethno-religious tolerance was hatched by former military head of state Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) in 1973, as part of the Federal Government’s Rehabilitation, Reconciliation and Reconstruction programme following the traumatic events of the bloody civil war in 1967, which culminated as a result of the immediate post-independence experience, characterized by ethnic loyalties, mutual group suspicion and distrust that almost torn the country into pieces. Indeed, it was evident that in the first few years of the programme, the scheme had played a very tremendous role in bringing about unity and understanding, as well as promoting ethno-religious cohesion among Nigerians despite their geographical, social, cultural and religious differences.

Part of the socio-cultural benefits of the scheme includes intermarriages between people of different ethno-religious backgrounds and even permanent settlement of some corps members in the states they were posted to serve. Economically, the scheme has also succeeded in opening doors and opportunities for commercial activities across regional and state boarders. Similarly, the three weeks orientation camp programme of the NYSC scheme avails the fresh graduates from different institutions of higher learning a golden opportunity to undergo physical and moral discipline, employment counselling, skills acquisition programmes among other social interactions that mould and prepare them for the labour market or entrepreneurship.

It is therefore, very unfortunate that this laudable initiative is gradually becoming a potential victim of the rising insecurity situation in the country, which is continuously having a very dangerous consequence on the nation’s socio-economic wellbeing. This goes to say that unless the government tackles the security situation properly and urgently, the very survival of the NYSC scheme among other several institutions is at a great risk. It is also a strong indicator to the bitter fact that the government is fast losing the fight to perpetrators of terrorism in the country.

It is therefore, imperative for the government and other stakeholders to rise up to the challenge and save the NYSC scheme and other similar institutions that are at risk from collapsing. The rising level of insecurity in the country, that is threatening the very existence of the nation as one, must be properly and urgently addressed. Specifically on the NYSC scheme, apart from the security challenge, there is also the need to address some logistics and organisational challenges that militate against the maximum performance of the scheme. These include the monthly allowance given to the corps members which is practically insufficient to cater for their livelihood during the service year, the hygiene and living conditions of the orientation camps should also be improved, the rigorous military drills should also be reduced and replaced with more practical skills acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes to help the corps members imbibe self-reliant vocations amidst the rising scarcity of job opportunities.

Indeed, the NYSC scheme holds so much promises and hope for a better Nigeria if only it can be properly organised and managed. The scheme has the capacity of bridging the ethno-religious gaps among the people, make the nation’s youths more useful and productive to themselves and the society as a whole, as well as ensure a better future for the country and therefore deserves all the necessary attention effort required to sustain it.