PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has signed the 2021 controversial Petroleum Industry Bill into law.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina, the president signed the bill on Monday while working from quarantine.
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Adesina added that the ceremonial part of the new legislation will be done on Wednesday after the president emerges from his ongoing COVID-19 isolation.
The bill, which was passed by the National Assembly in July, will provide a legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry. It will also address issues around the development of host communities and other related matters.
The passage of the bill has been heavily criticised by stakeholders in Southern Nigeria with the Pan-Niger Delta Forum and other groups in the South-South, South-West and South-East describing its provisions as “unjust, satanic and provocative”.
The Southern Governors Forum at its meeting in July had rejected the proposed three per cent share of oil profits for host communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), including the suggested ownership structure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC).
The governors accepted a five per cent share of oil profits for host communities and insisted that the NNPC should not be vested in the Federal Ministry of Finance as proposed.
They said the state oil company should be held in trust by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority ‘since all tiers of government have stakes in the vehicle.’
The forum also rejected the proposed allocation of at least 30 per cent of the profit generated by the proposed Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited for the exploration of oil in ‘frontier basins’ as identified by Section 9 of the bill.
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