We’ll pass PIGB before expiration of eighth National Assembly —Reps’ Chief Whip

Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ado Doguwa, is the chairman of the House Joint Ad hoc Committee on the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB). The committee was mandated by the House to review the Bill passed by the National Assembly but rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari. In this interview with Kehinde Akintola, he expresses confidence that the lower chamber of the National Assembly would still pass the PIGB into law before the end of its tenure. Excerpts:

Nigerians are worried about what they see as the lackadaisical attitude of the National Assembly to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB). Considering the importance of the bill to the oil sector which serves as the mainstay of the nation’s economy, why is it that the legislature appears to be shying away from revisiting this bill?

You see, the committee is an ad hoc one and I want to believe it is in session and it is still going on. It has not been dissolved; it is going on and a lot of activities, series of meetings and many other things are still ongoing.  The committee will continue to cherish this concept of what we call organisational reform of the oil and gas sector. The PIGB is a bill that we want to entrench in the country’s oil and gas sector on the basis of the fact that we must also look like other developed countries of the world and we must continue with this effort.

The PIGB has now returned to the National Assembly because President Muhammadu Buhari did not assent to it. I want to believe there are some moral issues in that respect. I also want to believe that they are not only moral issues but technical issues which Mr President may be objecting to. But we are now subjecting this bill to further scrutiny at the level of the committee.

Very soon, we would be embarking on a trip to Dubai where we will have interactions with other international stakeholders and interest groups in the oil and gas sector. We will be embarking on the trip where we will engage with some oil organisations worldwide. We hope to debate on the PIGB and see how we can perfect this bill and take it back to Mr President for assent. I want to believe also that the president wants to entrench this reform in the oil and gas sector and we are also committed to actualising it.

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Looking at the eighth National Assembly, the passage of the PIGB would have been a major gain but the Assembly will be winding down in a few weeks’ time. Concerned Nigerians are of the opinion that what appeared to be a major achievement of the eighth session of the federal legislative body might remain in the doldrums if the bill is not passed?

Like I said earlier, Nigerians must not lose sight of the fact that we have done our own part. I am only saying this by way of giving the president the benefit of the doubt. On our own part as the legislature, we have done our best to ensure that the PIGB becomes a reality. We have done our work and we submitted a bill passed for assent. President Buhari, for whatever reason, rejected the bill and refused to give his assent to it.

But now we are giving Mr President the benefit of the doubt, including moral benefit of doubt. We are now taking it upon ourselves to, once again, go through some of the objections he raised and see whether he has acceptable reasons not to assent to the PIGB.

Otherwise, you know even when the president rejects or refuses to give his assent, there is another constitutional process that we can follow. But we don’t want to go to that extent because we need a harmonious relationship with the executive arm of government.

Therefore, we now looked at some of these observations raised by Mr President. If they are critical enough and if they are serious enough to be reviewed, we will review them and then take it back to the president for his final assent.

But is there any hope that the several other bills rejected by the president would still be passed into law within the time frame of the eighth Assembly?

Three, four weeks or whatever, no matter the limited time we have, the National Assembly, as an institution, is timeless. The process of legislating will continue immediately. There will be no time the National Assembly will be dead. Even when the eighth Assembly is winding down, its successor, the ninth Assembly will take over from where it stopped. This will be immediately and almost automatically.

I want to believe, based on institutional progression that the ninth Assembly will continue from where we are going to stop. After all, some of us who are key players in the business of the process that led to the PIGB in the first instance will also come back as lawmakers in the ninth Assembly. So it is not about the time frame. Time is continuous, even as the process of law making is also a continuous one.

You don’t seem to be worried that we, as a people, are losing so much investment as a result of the failure of the bill to get passed into law. Several investors are becoming scared and they are moving out of the country in droves to neighbouring countries…

No matter the amount of investment we may lose, we must do the right thing in terms of promulgation of laws for this country. We must do the right thing and this is not about doing things in haste. Why do you have to rush a bill because of time but at the end of the day it would not even stand the test of time? We must follow the process to get things done the right way.

But we have been on this particular bill for over 12 years. How long should it take to get it passed into law?

No matter how long we take, we want to come out with a bill that is perfect and that would satisfy the people and the critical stakeholders in the oil and gas sector.

But we are talking of over 12 years here…

I am also insisting that no number of years is too much for a good and beneficial law to be made for a country like Nigeria. It doesn’t matter; the process can take 30 years. The ultimate end is to make laws that would seek to promote the interests and general well-being of the country and its people.

But why and how did you hope to justify the long number of years?

Yes, the intention or the desire must be the main thrust of our actions as lawmakers. We are working to come up with a perfect bill that will stand the test of time. This is what  obtains in some other countries, especially the advanced democracies. Therefore, it does not matter what time or how long the process of the passage of the PIGB takes. But one thing I can assure Nigerians is that the bill will be beneficial to all.