President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, on Wednesday
disclosed that the National Assembly has commenced consultation with the executive
arm of government on a new version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to be
introduced in the ninth National Assembly.
Lawan disclosed this during a meeting with
representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who paid a visit to
his office at the National Assembly in Abuja.
Representatives on the IMF delegation at the
meeting included Senior Resident Representative Mission Chief for Nigeria,
Amine Mati; Jesmine Raman, Zainab Mangga, Nanrup Ibrahim, Osana Odonye, and
Harrison Okafor.
According to Lawan, “The ninth Assembly, in its
determination to see to the eventual passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill
which defied passage into law since 2007, devised a strategy which deploys
constant interaction and collaboration between the executive and legislative
arms of government.”
He added that the interface between both arms would
birth a new PIB to be drafted from the scratch, and which would be passed by
the National Assembly and assented to by the president before the end of the
year.
Lawal said: “Going forward, the Petroleum Industry Bill
as referred to, has defied passage over the years since 2007.
“In 2011, there was another effort by the government;
still the bill was not passed as well. In 2015, there was a legislative effort
and the PIGB was passed eventually, but at the end of the day, it was not
signed.
“So, we came up with a new idea in the ninth
National Assembly that the fact that the executive tried by drafting a bill and
bringing it here for two tenures, then the legislature tried to do it on its
own, none also saw the light of the day.
“This time, we should actually interact and
collaborate more even before the bill is born.
Let the Petroleum Industry Bill be of the executive
and legislature, and that means starting to work on the bill from the scratch
between both arms of government.
“We are in consultation already, and by the time we
are able to fashion out the bill, our committees will swing into action.
“We believe that this time around, the ninth
National Assembly will break the jinx and should be able to pass the PIB.”
He added that the economy would get a boost when
the National Assembly passes the PIB before the end of the year and is signed
into law.
Speaking on the relationship between the
International body and Nigeria, the Senate president said: “IMF has been a
friend of Nigeria for a long time.
“Nigeria needs IMF, we are not contesting this. We
have our own challenges and have to borrow resources to implement them,
particularly the capital part of our budget.
“So we always prioritise our budget to reflect our
infrastructural needs. We want you to always be there to support us; we believe
that you can give us advice that will help our economy.”
Lawan also appealed to the IMF to support committees
of the National Assembly in the area of capacity building for legislators.
He noted that such support to relevant Finance
Committees would assist in the discharge of oversight functions and guarantee
prudence and efficiency on the part of Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs) of the government.
“The fact that the National Assembly is critical to
the development of this country means that you should help us build our
capacities.
“Members of the Finance Committee should be able to
have more capacities to discharge their responsibilities, and also when they
engage Ministry of Finance or the financial institutions, they should be able
to have very solid platform to exercise oversight critically to ensuring there
is prudence and efficiency,” the Senate president added.
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