Kwankwaso opposes Petroleum Industry Bill

By Femi Adi/Kaduna

Kano State governor , Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso told members of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill in Kaduna that people of Kano State reject the bill in totality.

Kwankwaso saId the decision to kick against the bill came after due consultation with stakeholders and the ordinary citizens of Kano state.

While noting that the people of Kano State will not be deceived to accepting and endorsing the Petroleum Industry Bill, the governor stressed that it was the resources of the north that was used to build the refineries as well as develop some parts of country and it should not be different this time.

He recalled that onshore-offshore dichotomy debate took the same dimension with arguments to promote development , but after it was passed ,it became a catalyst that have aided poverty and underdevelopment in the states and the north.

“We the people of the north want equity and fairness and so we are not supporting the PIB “.

He stated further that any member of the National Assembly from the state that supports the bill does not reflect the aspirations of the people of the state.

Kwankwaso and his Kaduna State counterpart, Alhaji Ramalan Yero, also specifically kicked against the provision of host communities fund in PIB.

Kwankwaso said that the sections dealing with the host communities fund, its purpose and entitlements should be removed.

“The state government recommends that this committee and by extension, the National Assembly should expunge the following sections from the proposed Bill:Sections 116, 117 and 118 respectively.”

According to him, the provision of the fund was against the 1999 constitution on the sharing of federation account and budgetary processes.

The governor noted that the ownership of petroleum and gas resources are vested in the sovereign state of the Nigeria and not in any region.

He also spoke on oil exploration in the North, noting that it was being deliberately sabotaged.

“We would like to state categorically that the issue of oil exploration in Northern Nigeria has been deliberately sabotaged,” he said.

Kwankwaso stressed that this development had contributed tremendously to widening existing gap between the North and the South.

He called for a separate Bill for the establishment of the National Exploration Agency as against it’s inclusion in the PIB.

The governor said that the major problem in the petroleum industry was corruption.

In her presentation, Hajia Hauwa Dalhatu, the Kaduna state Solicitor-General, who represented Yero, described the host communities fund as controversial, saying it would create another tier of government in the country.

Dalhatu called for the reduction in the power of the minister of petroleum resources provided in the bill to ensure transparency in the sector.

Sokoto and Jigawa States had promised to send their memoranda to the committee, while Kebbi, Zamfara and Katsina states were conspicuously absent at the hearing.

the committee was constituted in November 2012 and inaugurated by the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal on March 13, 2013.