PETROLEUM INDUSTRY ACT AND PARALYSIS OF PERCEPTION

For many years, the Petroleum Industry Bill became in the National Assembly the battle line across which stood familiar ethnic warriors cheered on by their people who saw in the bill a historic opportunity to look out for their own interests and nothing more.

There was always something to hold back the bill from hurtling over the line of passage, and always something to keep it from complete rejection. There was always the startling lack of clarity about key areas of the bill and the sweltering controversy about whether it was ultimately in the best interest of Nigerians, especially the long suffering people of the Niger Delta, or a particular section of the country which seems to have perfected the art of reaping from where it did not sow.

Before the advent of law which is recognized as a social contract, and instrument of social engineering, to make the affairs of the society smoother, life in the words of Hobbes was nasty, brutish and short. Law came as a great equalizer, a soothing balm for festering wounds. Law came as the great tiebreaker in the various conflicts which necessarily assail human existence.

But it has never been enough that legislations are passed in any society. What has been of even more critical importance is that those laws are obeyed from the highest rungs of a society to its lowest rungs. It Informs the entire idea of the rule of law and its prescription that the law must be supreme at all times and extract supreme subservience from everyone in the society.

Nigeria`s experience with the law has been bittersweet. The country gained independence in 1960 but erupted into Civil War seven years later. The military, largely to blame for the country`s teething problems would make hugely harmful intrusions into the governance of the country until 1999 when Nigeria returned to democracy. Since then, the rule of law in the country has yet to take a sound footing.
The long-suffering people of the Niger Delta were to discover that all that glitters is not gold soon after oil was discovered in their land. In intervening years, ruthless oil exploration which has calamitously abandoned the golden goose that lays the golden eggs has left the region on the brink of extinction.

Its waters are polluted. Life has been sucked out of its soil. Even the air its people breath is laden with lethal pollutants. The Niger Delta equation in Nigeria`s oil politics has always been a question of justice.
Thus, the Petroleum Industry Bill which was to overhaul the oil and gas sector was stymied for a decade over concerns it would deal an unfair hand to the people of the Niger Delta. Now that it has finally got over the line with the assent of President Muhammadu Buhari, the concerns are about to flare into a conflagration of chaos. Threats have been issued and responded to and observers fear for the region`s peace of the graveyard.

The people of the Niger Delta have railed over the allocation of a paltry three per cent to the region. The comparison with the 30 per cent allocated to the so-called frontier basins mostly in the north can only be legitimate.
There has been a long running concern in Nigeria that while the region that produces most of the resources used to develop the entire country is largely ignored, others feed fat and have resultantly grown lazy and entitled.
So, there are suspicions which so easily morph into agitations. Unfortunately, those agitations have episodically got violent resulting in needless deaths and the costly destruction of valuable property.

These avoidable problems can be chalked down to a lack of planning and the abundance of bad leadership that Nigeria is cursed with. It is no secret that Nigeria has had quite an unhealthy romance with leaders at different levels who lacked integrity, vision, political will and the other qualities which would have made them stand out and set the country on the path of peace, progress and development.
These leaders have helped to complicate Nigeria`s extremely delicate situation and set the country on a seemingly irreversible path to retrogression. Nigeria`s oil was only supposed to be an option among other viable options.

Before oil was discovered in Nigeria and exploration commenced, Nigeria had a thriving agricultural sector that not only fed the nation but made the country a thriving export hub. However, immediately petro-dollars began to stream in, like a spoilt child, Nigeria not only neglected its agricultural sector but successive governments also closed their eyes to other viable commodities in the international market.
Now, with experts warning that Nigeria`s oil reserves will dry up in no distant time, the country is scrambling and scampering to access other options to no avail.

It has made the question of oil very testy and touchy. There is no doubt that before Nigeria can find its groove again, hard questions have to be asked and answered about its oil resources. The Petroleum Industry Act neither asks nor answers those questions. It is yet another fruitless exercise in Nigeria`s quest for candor and clarity.