From Fred Itua, Abuja
THE Senate and the House of Representatives have revealed plans to commence debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by laying it in their respective chambers next week. President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki said the move is a demonstration of the synergy existing between both chambers of the National Assembly.
Saraki who stated this in Abuja yesterday at a Business Environment Roundtable on the economy, hosted by the National Assembly, said it has become necessary in order to aid the speedy consideration and passage of PIB.
“We have said that the present National Assembly would not be business as usual? More importantly is the presence of the Honourable Speaker represented by the Chief Whip of the House Ado Doguwa at this event. The message from this is that the National Assembly – both Senate and House of Representatives–is working very closely together in the eight National Assembly and as such some of these processes would not be bogged down in any of the chambers.
“We are both committed. We have both come out with our agenda and as part of this commitment, you will all see next week, when we lay the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill. You will see that the Bill we are going to lay in the House is the same Bill we are going to lay in the Senate because for the first time, we are committed to work together as one to achieve results.” he said.
The special business environment roundtable according to him was meant to further “interrogate the report, validate its conclusions, get the buy-in of key stakeholders including the organized private sector, key government agencies, policy makers, regulators, the media, civil society and other stakeholders.
“We have gone this route because we believe that if we deliberately involve and continuously engage our people in lawmaking, the edicts and policies we make will be greatly enriched and accepted having been a product of collective consensus,” he said.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, commended the initiative of the roundtable “saying it could not have come at a better time than now because we need the support of the private sector to turn around our economic fortunes.
He said the House would support the initiative which he said was in tandem with its legislative agenda and the agenda of the eight National Assembly to create enabling business environment in the country, boost investors confidence which will in turn create the needed jobs.
The Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Mrs Aisha Abubakar, in her goodwill message noted that the roundtable was a clear demonstration of the synergy that exists between the National Assembly and the Executive aimed at improving the nation’s business environment in order to grow the economy.
Major parts of the report which were critically reviewed during the breakout technical sessions include the laws on competition, doing business, roads, rail and maritime infrastructure, public-private partnerships, taxation, finance and investment, arbitration and dispute resolution, e-business and intellectual property and Constitution review.