By Idang Alibi
One of the key decisions taken at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of Wednesday, September 23 this year is one which will lead to a historic action of some sorts with a major impact on the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. The decision we are talking about here was the approval, by the highest decision-making body in the country, for the establishment of the National Council on Hydrocarbons (NCH) in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Following that approval, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has made a major move to give effect to it. It has scheduled the inaugural meeting of the National Council on Hydrocarbons to hold on Monday and Tuesday 21st and 22nd of this month at the NICON Luxury Hotel in Abuja.
Like other councils in other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) established to deal with issues in various sectors of the political economy, the NCH is an advisory body which is expected to provide a sustainable platform for the ventilation and distillation of ideas by stakeholders in the oil and gas industry on an annual basis, except some emergency issues arise. The recommendations from the NCH shall assist the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to review, strengthen and or initiate robust policies for the oil and gas sector of the national economy.
Given the strategic importance of oil and gas to Nigeria, such a body should have been in existence many years ago and one can only wonder why no one thought about it until now. But as the saying goes, ‘’better late than never’’. That the FEC meeting which eventually gave approval was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari who was a former minister of petroleum some forty years ago and who knows so much about the oil industry did not waste time in approving the institutionalisation of the NCH is because the president himself is fully aware of the desirability of having such a body now.
The approval could not have come at a better time. The oil sector which has been the mainstay of the country’s economy has fallen on hard times. Revenue from that sector has fallen drastically, plunging the country into economic difficulties.
Yet, for now and the foreseeable future, it is still that sector that will be relied upon to provide succour for the ailing economy. This explains why President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Kachikwu, are making concerted efforts to broaden stakeholders’ participation in the management of that sector. The NCH will be one of the organs open for concerned stakeholders to volunteer their opinion and expertise in the service of the fatherland.
Since even the Holy Book says that in the multitude of counsel there is safety and peace, it is hoped that the advice that will come from the NCH will contribute in no small measure in growing that critical sector. When many more inside and outside voices are added to those in government in the management of the industry, it will help government to design policies, laws and regulations that will enable Nigeria to fully realise the potential from her abundant hydrocarbons.
This is obviously what informed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to adopt as theme for the inaugural meeting Realising the Potential of Hydrocarbons in Nigeria.
This theme cannot be more apt. It is consistent with the objectives of growing the petroleum industry as contained in the roadmap recently presented to the public by President Buhari in a document codenamed the 7 Big Wins.
Apart from the formal role which the NCH will play in the growth and development of the oil and gas industry, it will also provide a platform for the ventilation of pent up anger relating to the operations of the oil industry
Now aggrieved persons in the oil bearing communities, patriots who are unhappy about the way the oil and gas business is run in the country, international and domestic players in the industry and many others now have a powerful platform to contribute their opinion on what better ways to better run the sector that is the apple of the nation’s eyes.
The Extractive Industry Initiative and other formal bodies charged with some oversight duty on the petroleum industry now have an added platform to say something that will shape how things are done in that industry.
Anything about the petroleum sector in Nigeria generates unusual interest. That is hardly surprising. It is still the goose that lays Nigeria’s golden egg. Although fortunes from this sector have dwindled remarkably in recent times, it is still by far the largest foreign exchange earner for the country.
And there is still enough scope for Nigeria to optimise her earnings from petroleum as a way of weaning herself away from depending on it for ever. As it is now, Nigeria needs oil to get out of oil. That is the interesting paradox facing the nation.
As a measure of the interest which anything petroleum generates in our country, already, memoranda have started coming in from interested members of the public on three key thematic areas: Upstream, Environment, Security and Community Relations; Downstream, Gas, Infrastructure, Local Content and Industrial Relations and Legislation, Regulation and Policy.
Since the forthcoming NCH is the first ever in the history of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, organisers have said that memo on any of the above listed themes can still be presented by willing members of the public right up to Sunday, the eve of the two-day event.
This is to allow for as many persons as possible to participate and contribute actively for the success of the meeting.
Alibi is the Director, Press and PR, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.