Senate President Speaks on Petroleum Industry Bill

Senator Ahmed Lawan has said the National Assembly will next Tuesday receive the report of its joint committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill which will be laid at the plenary.

The senator who noted that the bill will be ready by the end of the week said bothe chambers will receive it next week.

He said, “At the moment, we are dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s on the PIB; the Petrol Industry Bill, and by the grace of God, our committees, the joint committees, will finish their work on it by the end of the week, hopefully. The reports would be laid on Tuesday in both chambers. This is what we have planned and this is what we’re working towards.”

He further stated that attention has also been on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill sothat it will be passed before the legislators proceed on their annual vacation next month.

According to him, “We also have some work to do on the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill. Our committee in the Senate and indeed, in the house, have worked jointly and we have very little to do really, to get the reports and considered in the two chambers.

“We expect that we’ll do that before we go on our annual summer recess, which comes up on the 15th of July, by the grace of God. So, before we go on summer recess, we should be able to pass the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.”

The Senate President also gave the assurance that the National Assembly will  work on  confirming the nominees for INEC Commissionership as well as passing the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill sent to it last week by the Executive.

According to him, “We also have outstanding confirmation requests for National Commissioners of INEC, we’ll do that, we’ll consider those confirmation requests from Mr President before we go. Then, of course, we’ll also have the loan request from Mr President.

“The loan request is to fund the 2021 Appropriation Act and of course, this is not a new request it’s something that we had passed in the MTEF and it’s something that when we pass the budget 2021 we also passed that, so it’s only to give the necessary legislative approval for the administration to go further and collect the funds.

“The Executive arm of government, had submitted a Supplementary Budget request. In the Senate, we have had the second reading yesterday and we have given the Appropriations Committee, particularly to deal with it.

“We expect a report on this by Tuesday, by the grace of God and we may consider that report on Wednesday next week so that we’re able to pass the request because of the urgency and the need for us to hit the ground running, we need to give so much attention to our security agencies because of the situation across the country and of course, the COVID-19 vaccines, procurement is also an essential thing that we need to do,” he added.