President Jonathan on Monday in
a nationwide broadcast
on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the Petroleum
Industry said, "the legal and regulatory regime for the petroleum
industry will be reviewed to address accountability issues and
current lapses in the industry"
Rev. Ogolor, who is the Executive Director
of ANEEJ, and who spoke to Nigeriannews.com commended the President on
his decision to fast track the reform of the downstream sector, noted
that only a complete institutional frame would bring about the reform
of the sector.
He said "we
welcome the commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan to give the
Petroleum Industry Bill, an accelerated attention. His commitment is
quite progressive and in line with the yearnings of Nigerians who are
keen on ending the resource curse phenomenon that has characterized
the Oil and Gas industry in the past five decades. ‘’
"We expect the PIB will spell out all
elements of the reform of the Petroleum Industry needed to entrench
probity, transparency and accountability," the ANNEJ Executive
Director told Nigeriannews.com
The activist added that "our next
expectation from President Jonathan in this regard is to match words
with action.
``And I suggest he
sends a fresh Petroleum Industry Bill to the National Assembly within
two weeks from today. The draft Bill should be printed and circulated
to all stakeholders, even posted in the internet and if possible,
serialised in national dailies to avoid a situation where several
versions will be in existence as was the case in the 6th legislative
Assembly. This will also afford Nigerians the opportunity to make
their input into the Bill.
"Thereafter,
those of us in ANEEJ and our allies working on revenue transparency in
the country would follow up with the parliamentarians to ensure its
speedy passage,’’ an apparently excited Rev. David Ugolor enthused..
According to him, "It was
equally nice to hear Mr. President reassure Nigerians of his
commitment to tackle corruption in the oil industry and elsewhere, ‘’
saying that ``this
reassurance is quite laudable and we urge Mr. President to ensure the
full implementation of the recommendations, particularly given the
widespread acknowledgement of the rot in the NNPC over the years and
more importantly, to serve as a deterrent to all those who would be
involved in the reform of the sector and hence the transformation
agenda of the present administration.’’
On government’s reduction of pump price to
N97 a litre, Arch. Bassey, the Country executive Director of
Environmental Rights Agenda (ERA) said ``it is good that the
government had seen the need to shift grounds.
But he noted that ``the reduction is not
sufficient as the subsisting budget supports N65 per litre, saying
that ``the N97 figure is a phantom figure that is not backed by us.
Arch. Bassey, however, said that`` the
probe called by the president of the so-called subsidy payments is a
step in the right direction.
`` However, the probe of the cabal and
government agents should be handled by peoples’ tribunal not an EFCC
which hands are still full of cases of corruption crying for
attention,’’ he said.