Ogonis Reject PIA,Describe it as Anti-people

The Petroleum Industry Act, PIA signed into law 2021 to guide oil and gas activities in Nigeria continues to receive bashing. This time, Ogonis have described it as anti-people designed to emasculate oil and gas communities while giving ownership to the lessors-oil operators.
At an event recently organized to commemorate the 2023 Ogoni day in honour of the Ogoni 13 murdered by the Nigerian state for demanding a better deal for the Ogonis from oil activities in their land, said the people said there is a danger of role confusion among the agencies set up to manage the industry in the Act, low space for local industries to thrive in the downstream sector, too much power conferred on operators with power to decide who gets into the Community Trust Fund, possibility of denial of the three per cent operational cost fund to communities and poor gas flare law, among others.
They stated that public interest obligations are not served as they are governed by conditional terms of ‘may’ rather than ‘shall’ while the non-specification of where cases of grievances should be taken to can endanger energy sovereignty.
Stating that ‘Abuja had already made up their mind what to do with the PIA’, a former commissioner for Energy in Rivers State, Chief Dr Peter Mede narrated how he gathered Energy commissioners from the region to come out with a position paper on what the people would like to see in the PIA but none of their suggestions was accommodated despite being presented at the public hearing organized while the bill was being processed
Said he: “Energy commissioners from nine oil producing states raised a team led by Chief Joseph Ellah, former deputy managing director of Elf/Total, we had representation on Beneficiary/Right Enforcement, Divesting areas identified (federal government, State/Local Governments and Host Communities and powers of the minister.
“We advocated for Rivers State as headquarter but dirty politics moved the PIA headquarter to NNPC Ltd. States and local governments have zero role in the PIA despite being closest to communities”.
Pointing out further the politics in the PIA, the former commissioner queried, “Oil discovery in the past was private, why 10 per cent frontier funding of exploration from the federation account?”{
State governments should help communities harness the PIA rights
Section 6 communities within the littoral lines-government needs to protect these communities and there should be proper boundary delineations.
Alerting on the current pace of divestments from onshore to offshore sites by the giant oil corporations in the country without proper care of the environment they have destroyed over the years, Courage Nsirimovu of the Public Interest Advocates drew the attention of participants at the forum to the fact that there is no framework for mediation before divestment in the PIA.
He however, informed that his organization in association with some other civil society groups are in court to challenge the absence of that provision to ensure communities are not just used and abandoned without remediation.
Responding to comments on the PIA convener of the gathering, Prof Wai-Ogosu noted that the essence of the critique on the act was to identify gaps which included lack of proper information about the act despite its importance. He said the observations made were vital as there is always room for review and amendment.
He said the book, ‘Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021: A CRIQUE’ put together by Terry M. Bagia, Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu and Prince Suka Momta’ is aimed at reawakening interest for effective participation in the PIA process by communities and advised that the people should acquaint themselves with details of the PIA to take advantage of the little leverage therein.
A section from the critique reads: “People are wondering if the emergence of such a controversial bill is a mere coincidence. In fact, the bill is largely perceived as an ill-fated attempt to perpetuate the the economic coup against the petroleum host communities. This calls for a rethink