New oil bill still cosmetic, says Ejoor
By Nnamdi Inyama,
Justin Akpovi-Esade and Lekan Okusan
THREE policy decisions relating to the oil sector have drawn the ire of former Chief of Army Staff Maj.-Gen. David Ejoor (rtd).
The three areas are: The new Oil and Gas Services Bill passed by the Senate, government's plan to break the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC's) monopoly of pipelines and the decision to evaluate oil blocs in Chad, the Gulf of` Guinea and the Niger Delta.
The new bill, which will give preferential employment in oil and gas companies to qualified indigenes of the Niger Delta, Gen. Ejoor described as cosmetic as it does not spell out specifically the modalities for such job placement.
Regarding the breaking of NNPC's monopoly, he said this would present an unhealthy face to the government privatisation policy.
He said his fears were that releasing facilities of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to third party users will further undermine effective control of oil resources and make them prone to abuse.
He wondered how an emasculated NNPC would exercise effective control over the activities of such private third party organisations.
On the planned open bidding for oil blocs next year, Gen. Ejoor said it was unfortunate that the government was going ahead to exploit oil reserves in the three areas while in fact, Nigeria was getting more revenue from petroleum than it ever did before.
He contended that the revenue from oil in the Niger Delta was neither being used in the interest of all Nigerians in general nor for the people of the polluted and devastated area in particular.
He compared the current era to Gen. Yakubu Gowon's administration which he served as the military governor and Army Chief of Staff noting that the roads and highways were built during that period. "Not much has been added to them since then," he said.
He called for the abrogation of the Land Use Act which he said was smuggled into the 1999 Constitution, as well as greater control of the resources in the Niger Delta by the people themselves.
He said the problems of the Niger Delta need more than the "placatory and cosmetic measures the government has been applying," stressing that only a true federalism, in which the constituent parts will to a large extent manage their own natural resources, can guarantee a united, strong and automatically viable Nigeria devoid of profligacy and corruption.
