Rev. Canon Chuka Opara was not only right, but also prophetic to have described the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as the \u201cAbiku Bill\u201d (ref. The Tide, Monday, July 12, 2021).What Yorubas call \u201cabiku\u201d, known in Igbo as \u201cOgbanje\u201d, is a trouble-ladden child, \u201ccoming and going these seasons\u201d, rather than settle down to redress a trouble-ladden life. Surely, there are such weird children as well as policies and laws whose purposes include spreading unrests under beautiful cloaks.
Originally, the purposes of the PIB proposals were to guarantee an uninterrupted flow of the Nigerian oil and gas so as to restore, recapture and create investor-confidence in the industry. More importantly was need to address or redress the issues, fears and challenges of the Niger Delta people, arising from the oil and gas industry. Rather than focus on the original intents, the \u201cAbiku Bill\u201d turned around to provide opportunities for \u201cputting the country\u2019s future in the hands of multinationals and private foreign capital (or their local fronts) as well as a few genuine Nigerian investors\u201d.
Dr Joseph Ellah, an insider in the oil and gas industry, revealed long ago that \u201csome individuals appear to believe the oil must belong to them, so they have been trying legal tricks and means to acquire ownership. This Bill is part of their effort \u2026\u201d It was during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 \u2013 1970) that the opportunity for a privatisation of the resources of the Niger Delta people began, with the Petroleum Act. From making it a national asset, the next strategy would be to hand it over to a few private entities.
Long ago when late Senator Francis Ellah tried to expose game-plans to short-change the people of the Niger Delta through some clever strategies, he was deliberately shouted down on the Senate floor. In his \u201cUnfinished Motion\u201d, Senator Ellah made a number of revelations which the creation of more states from the original 12-state structure tried to cover up. With the euphoria of creation of more states, the injustice planned for the Niger Delta oil and gas producing zone was not recognised by many.
The same strategy of shouting down on the Senate floor was applied on Senator Godswill Akpabio, when his speech tended to expose vital issues relating to the politics of oil and gas resources of the Niger Delta. Similarly, the long-held suspicion that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and its predecessor, OMPADEC, had been under some remote control, turned into valid conviction. The venom and plots against Dr Goodluck Jonathan staying on as President were rooted in preventing him from playing any role in renewal of oil blocks allocation.
A large number of Nigerians would not be aware of the fact that growing instability and insecurity in Nigeria are rooted in the political economy which the military installed before standing aside from politics in 1999. Similarly, that political economy was rooted in the clandestine politics of oil blocks (OML) allocation, of which Senator Ita Enang told us that Northerners owned 83% of all oil blocks in Nigeria. Would any rational person wonder why things are falling apart in the country, or that the PIB, if passed into law, would be the culminating point of a game of monopoly?
We must thank Rev. Canon Opara for describing the PIB as an Abiku the parents can hardly recognise. \u201cAbiku\u201d child is usually sickly and can be taken from a medical hospital after many failed remedies, to traditional medicine man. Those who know about the Abiku phenomenon would tell us that the Abiku changling would demand some propitiation to be able to stay. It is a tantalizing affair in which parents dragged into the bargain would continue to make sacrifices and appeasements which can be endless, in order to keep what is theirs.
Opara told us that \u201cE.K. Clark is angry. Very angry. And his people are in his support. Their anger is based majorly on three points\u201d. Those three points are: 1. The new PIB has redefined Oil Producing Communities to include \u201cany community that oil pipelines pass through. 2. The new PIB awards 30% annual oil profit to Frontier Oil Exploration in the North, and 3. Approves 3% annual allocation of oil profit to Oil Producing Communities.
Is there any rational Nigerian who would not see the shenanigans of the PIB as well as the insult on the people of the Niger Delta? Similarly, anyone would wonder where those representing the Niger Delta zone in the National Assembly were, when such a Bill was crafted? It would be more appropriate to say that the Bill was deliberately and cleverly crafted, rather than being written or drafted in a way that would not hide out some hidden agenda. It is most likely that the PIB is the craft of spin-doctors working for some very powerful interest groups.
Bitter and controversial issues raised when the Bill was tagged Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) were cleverly retained in such vexations and ambiguous manner that anyone would recall James Last\u2019s song: Obviously, the situation demands that some people must be called to order, made to explain their roles in the crafting of the PIB and also make apologies to the people of the Niger Delta. As things are, currently, if the PIB is passed into law, it is obvious that the Niger Delta would become a boiling point. We can always give a dog a bad name \u2026
Were the \u201cquisling Southern legislators asleep on duty to have allowed foes plant weeds on their vineyard!\u201d Perhaps, \u201callowing the Abiku Bill to be hijacked by more alert counterparts from the North\u201d may not be the cardinal failure of the Southern legislators. Rev. Canon Opara\u2019s allusion to \u201cavarice and greed\u201d has more to do with the matter. Similarly, the foundation for what is playing out now was laid by the military via the inexplicable remuneration package for legislators and the Land Use Act.
A vital issue raised by Opara is the advice he inherited from his mother, namely: \u201cnever you be eager to befriend anyone whose desire is always to cheat you\u201d. Someone is not only cheating, not only taking too much for the owner to know, but also using various strategies to cow and stop the one being cheated from complaining. Would Nigerians be surprised if the lame and blind become strong and seeing? Once again, the game is up and we know who is cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rev. Canon Chuka Opara was not only right, but also prophetic to have described the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as the \u201cAbiku Bill\u201d (ref. The Tide, Monday, July 12, 2021).What Yorubas call \u201cabiku\u201d, known in Igbo as \u201cOgbanje\u201d, is a trouble-ladden child, \u201ccoming and going these seasons\u201d, rather than settle down to redress a trouble-ladden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n