Discretionary allocations of oil licences killing industry on alter of politics—Ezekwesili
Vociferous former Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has disclosed that the discretionary award of oil licences is “killing a technical sector on the altar of politics.”
In her opening remarks in Lagos during a recent National Education Summit organised by the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria, she argued that whereas the Local Content Act was aimed at developing local capacities and competencies in the oil industry, political considerations in allocation oil licenecs are taking away the shine to the cleaners.
According to her, “One of the things that NEITI (Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) entrenched in the oil and gas industry was the idea that we must avoid discretionary allocation of the right to explore for oil in the country.
“The discretionary allocation system led to mediocrity, incompetence and the stifling of the sector. That discretionary practice was the harbinger of grand corruption in this country.”
“The Petroleum Act, 1969 (as amended), gives full authority or discretion to the Minister of Petroleum to grant licences for the exploration, prospecting and mining of oil, and empowers the President to “cause the farm-out of a marginal field” if it has been left unattended for a period of not less than 10 years from the date of its first discovery.
While revealing that the system of auctioning and licence options was entrenched to put an end to discretionary allocations, the educationists decried that “the marginal fields programme was meant to expand local participation in the industry”.
She recalled “how it was at that time that people who were in politics assumed marginal fields and were simply going to be distributed to all who clapped at the village square”.
“But having entrenched the principle of transparency through NEITI, we simply said ‘no, this isn’t going to be’. Because if you look at your local content as your prebends for settling your political elite, then what you do is that you kill a technical sector on the altar of politics.”
“I pray that our local content policy will not suffer stifling simply because it is not anchored on the obvious vision, which is that economic impact of the sector be extended beyond the operators, who have connections of one kind or the other, to people who hold high political offices,” Dr. Ezekwesili averred.
