Rivers Senator Blames 7th National Assembly for not passing PIB

Senator Olaka Nwogu

The lawmaker representing Rivers South-East Senatorial district in the current Senate, Senator Olaka Nwogu, has upbraided the immediate past National Assembly for its failure to pass the much talked-about Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, into law before its exit on June 4, 2015, Daily Independent reports.

Speaking in Abuja on Monday, the Senator noted that although the last Senate worked hard in other areas, it regrettably broke the heart of most people from the Niger Delta areas for not passing the Petroleum Industry Bill before the expiration of its tenure despite all the assurances given by the immediate past Senate President, David Mark.

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According to him, “Well, I think it was one of the sad moments of the last dispensation. That dispensation worked hard but not icing the cake with the passage of the PIB is something that broke our hearts especially those of us from the affected areas. It would have helped Nigeria.

“I always tell people, economics is a very simple thing. If you become too selfish you miss things. If you have a farm that produces for you and you fed from the farm, you should be concerned about the welfare of those in the farm, and even the people who live around the farm so that goodwill will follow what happens there”.

Nwogu, who was a prominent member of the House of Representatives for two consecutive terms, lamented that none passage of the PIB by successive administrations has not only failed to address the mirage of challenges in the nation’s petroleum industry but has exposed the nation’s inability to service its domestic debts leading to the current quest for bailout by state governors.

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His words, “If you start starving the source of your own wealth, then it doesn’t make sense to me. Imagine that immediately oil price went down, most of the states of this country could not pay their salaries. And that passes a message that we are still dependent on oil but yet you treat the place that oil comes from anyhow. Once it came to a point where the people from the oil producing areas will get a better deal, politics crept in and it made it difficult for that bill to be passed”.

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