Clark Rejects PIB, Insists on 10% Equity for Host Communities

• Says legislation satanic

By Elumoye and Udora Orizu

The National Leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has rejected some provisions in the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), particularly the three and five percent operating expenditure granted to the Host Communities.

The two chambers of the National Assembly, had last week passed the long awaited legislation. While the Senate approved three percent as operating expenditure to the Host Communities, the House of Representatives on its part approved five percent.

Clark, who is also the National Leader of the South South zone, in an open letter dated July 5, 2021 and addressed to the principal officers of the National Assembly, Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, described the provisions as unjust, satanic and provocative, given decades of exploitation and neglect of the Niger Delta region.

In the letter, copies of which will be sent to all the six Governors of the South South zone and other leaders of the South-South, the elder Statesman lamented that the people of the Niger Delta, at home and abroad, have expressed their great displeasure over the allocation of a paltry percentage of operating expenditure to oil producing communities by the National Assembly.

He recalled that at the public hearings in January 2021, representatives from the Niger Delta insisted on the principle of the 10 percent equity participation.

This request, according to Clark, has fallen on deaf ears as the operating expenditure being proposed by both houses of the National Assembly, is to the disappointment of the region.
The elder Statesman also said the fraudulent provision of 30 percent of profits for further frontier oil exploration in the north calls to question claims by the current regime that it was working towards an economy away from oil.

He therefore insisted that the PIB must be reversed, reviewed and amended to ensure that the Oil-Bearing Communities must now receive not less than 10 percent of Operating Cost.
The former Federal Commissioner for Information stressed that if their request are not met, the Niger Delta people may be forced to take their destiny into their own hands and all IOCs may find themselves denied access to their oil activities in such communities.

The letter read, in part, “My Distinguished President of the Senate and The Rt. Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, we have noticed with dismay, anger, disappointment and embarrassment, the oppressive and domineering attitude of most members of the National Assembly (NASS) over the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now due for imminent harmonization by the National Assembly. We have heard that the House of Representatives have seen fit to increase the percentage from 2.5 percent to 5 percent for Upstream Host Communities – those who are directly impacted by the exploration and production activities of the Oil & Gas operators – whilst a percentage of 2 percent would be applied to communities that are host to midstream and downstream infrastructure, such as refineries and pipelines; however, we have also heard that the Senate has only seen fit to set the percentage as 3 percent.

“It is important to state clearly here to all well-meaning Nigerians that the demand of the oil bearing communities of the Niger Delta Region was for a minimum of 10 percent equity participation. But you Mr. Senate President, the Right Honourable Speaker and some of your colleagues in the National Assembly, have further shown your disdain to the Niger Delta people by redefining host communities to include pipeline-bearing pathway communities, in which case States where pipelines pass through to aid them with the privilege of cheap supplies of Niger Delta petroleum products could also be entitled to the ridiculous and unacceptable percentages that the legislators are willing to cede to oil-bearing Communities.

“The long suffering and oppressed people of the oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta are not surprised at the news that the National Assembly finally passed the PIB, albeit the lofty dreams and vaunted expectations of over two decades of legislative dilly-dally had been dashed. This unhealthy anti-climax is a predictable end as northern Legislators combined with the dilutional efforts of IOCs to pass an unjust piece of legislation to deny our people the benefits of the resources in their region.”