Senator Demands Total Recall of Northern Oil Blocks

The debate on Nigeria’s petroleum industry bill (PIB), which is primarily aimed at injecting decorum into the sector, took a nasty neo- xenophobic turn Wednesday on the floor of the Senate (upper arm of parliament) as a Senator from the oil producing state of Akwa Ibom called for total recall of all oil blocks allocated to Northern prospectors.

A visibly angry Senator Ita Enang, of the rulling Peoples Democratic Party demanded President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s first ruler from the oil belt revoke and re-award all the oil blocks hitherto allocated in the country.

Senator Enang was visibly angered by Northern senators’ opposition to sections of the proposed law which gives 10 per cent of oil revenue to indigenous groups (host communities) who bear the brunt of the oil industry’s failures. He stated that his proposal would put the industry at a level play field to all Nigerians which is presently dominated by investors of Northern origin.

The senator made the appeal while contributing to the on-going debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the floor of the Senate.

It was in response to the criticisms by some northern lawmakers who on Tuesday opposed the provision of the PIB which stipulates that 10 per cent of revenue earned by oil companies must be donated to the Host Community Development Fund.

The Senator represents Itu and Ibiono Ibom, an oil producing Constituency in Akwa Ibom State. His xenophobic rhetoric no doubt will heat the debate further when legislators resume Thursday for further debate.

The PIB bill in recent times has been vigorously pursued by Mrs. Diezieni Allinson-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resource, a petroleum engineer from the oil producing state of Bayelsa and former Shell executive. It is aimed at sanitising the nation’s hopeless looking petroleum industry.

Nigeria is Africa’s leading petroleum exporting nation, but most of its nearly 170 million people live below the UN prescribed $1 per-day maxim.