NAPE members frustrated by political undercurrents trailing PIB at NASS—Adesanya
President, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Mr. Abiodun Adesanya has opened up on why they are beginning to lose interest following the National Assembly in the process of driving home the much expected petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is currently the longest awaited law from the lawmakers.
In an interview, he said the observed planned delays by lawmakers in the process of passing the law has made his members become almost hopeless.
He said “At the very beginning we were engaged when they had their public hearing during the 7th assembly. Since then, we were equally frustrated like everyone else when there were delays.” According to him, “With those delays, we were also anxious and worried. Early last year, I had a discussion with some of the staff of Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources to understand what the strategy is going forward”.
“So, what they told me which is what is being implemented now was that the PIB is going to be split into three major part and the first part will be the one that will focus on regulatory activities and expansion. So those ones that are not political, if you remember, the PIB was going through a smooth conversation until they got into political areas and things got to a halt.
“So, they said let’s take out the political issues and focus on regulatory aspect and that’s what they have been doing. Now, we haven’t really interacted with this new National Assembly, we were invited in December 2015 when they were having a retreat and at that meeting, we did mentioned to them our intention in further engaging with them. They haven’t formed the committees at that time, but now that the committees are in place, we need to quickly reach out to them.
Adesanya recalled that “When we were planning our conference last year, we reached out to them but a number of them said the timing wasn’t convenient for them but we are planning to make that visit to them and engage them”.
“We have also given them the information that if they have any area of doubt or any aspect they want us to comment or enlighten them on, they should feel free to invite us.
