President Muhammadu Buhari
withheld his assent from the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) because
of ”legal and constitutional reasons”, his legislative aide has said.
Ita Enang described as blackmail
reports that Buhari rejected the bill because it whittled down his power as
minister of petroleum resources.
In a press release on Wednesday,
Enang said the three major reasons are:
“a) That the provision of the
Bill permitting the Petroleum Regulatory commission to retain as much as 10% of
the revenue generated unduly increases the funds accruing to the Petroleum
Regulatory commission to the detriment of the revenue available to the Federal,
States, Federal capital Territory and Local governments in the country.
“b) Expanding the scope of
Petroleum equalisation fund and some provisions in divergence from this administration’s
policy and indeed conflicting provisions on independent petroleum equalisation
fund.
“c) Some legislative drafting
concerns which, if Assented to in the form presented will create ambiguity and
conflict in interpretation.”
However, he said there are “other
issues therein contained” which he did not list.
Recall we repotred the story on
Tuesday, listing three of the reasons given by the president as the whittling
down of his power as minister of petroleum resources, failure of any minister
consulted to support it, and the lack of any “fiscal content” of the bill.
ENANG’S FULL STATEMENT
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY GOVERNANCE BILL, 2018: PRESIDENTIAL ASSENT WITHHELD
By Presidential communication of
JULY 29, 2018 (one month ago) addressed to the Senate and House of
Representatives, Mr. president did communicate decline of Assent to the
Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, 2018 for constitutional and legal reasons
stated therein.
By convention, it is
inappropriate to speak on the content of Executive communication addressed to
the Legislature until same has been read on the floor in plenary. But i plead
for the understanding of the legislature that due to the misrepresentations in
the public domain and apparent deliberate blackmail which if not promptly
addressed may set both the executive and the legislature against the public and
even the international investment community, this be excused.
None of the reasons for
withholding Assent by Mr. President adduced by the media is true.
In deference to the National
Assembly I please state very limited of the rationale communicated to the
legislature, to wit:
a) That the provision of the Bill
permitting the Petroleum Regulatory commission to retain as much as 10% of the
revenue generated unduly increases the funds accruing to the Petroleum
Regulatory commission to the detriment of the revenue available to the Federal,
States, Federal capital Territory and Local governments in the country.
b) Expanding the scope of
Petroleum equalisation fund and some provisions in divergence from this
administration’s policy and indeed conflicting provisions on independent
petroleum equalisation fund.
c) Some legislative drafting
concerns which, if Assented to in the form presented will create ambiguity and
conflict in interpretation.
Other issues therein contained.
May this please answer some of
the issues raised until the communication is read on the floor.
Senator ITA ENANG
Presidential liaison to the
National Assembly-Senate.
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com