Let VP’s Office, NCP Implement PIA, FG Advised

Nume Ekeghe

Sequel to the appointment of members of the implementation committee of the Petroleum Industrial Act (PIA) panel, energy analyst and former Senior Technical Advisor to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Dan Kunle, has urged the federal government to reside the implementation of the PIA at the office of the vice president and the National Council of Privatisation (NCP).

He noted that the VP’s office should spearhead the panel with the NCP, and as a matter of urgency, also include the Ministry of Finance as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor if it is to attain its obligation.

The energy expert stated this yesterday when he featured on the Morning Show of Arise News television, THISDAY sister broadcast station.

He added that the oil and gas industry may be stranded in the next two years, with the technicalities and reforms stated in the PIA as well as the implementation panel.

Kunle said: “On the panel, I was very uncomfortable with the list of members. I was wondering why apart from Femi, a lawyer, who is as outsider, other members are all from the corridor of power, but not including the vice president, who is the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation and the chairman of the National Economic Council; it was very strange.

“The members of the panel cannot reform the oil and gas sector, because you cannot reform yourself. I am thinking that the panel would have been headed by the vice president and the minister of finance because the Ministry of Finance gave us power of attorney to privatise all the subsidies of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). I would have expected this implementation to be situated within the vice president’s office and the national council of privatisation because the aim is to implement the reform. So why create a separate committee to do this job?

“If we are not careful, because of the next electioneering, this panel in the next six months may have a lot of legal tussles to go through. And by May next year, it would become so political that the industry may be stranded, and the oil and gas industry may be stranded in the next two years.”

He added: “I would suggest to the president to allow the vice president and the national council of privatisation to carry on this reform, including the minister of finance and the CBN governor because they are members of the national council of privatisation.”

Responding to the question on the clarity or otherwise of the clause in the Act in Section 64(c) which states that NNPC would lift and sell royalty oil and tax oil on behalf of the commission and service respectively, he said: “I think the regulatory authorities is for mainstream authority in the bill while in the upstream, it was regulatory commission. So, when you use the word service, perhaps the lawyer would tell you what it means and again it further complicates the matter.”