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By Nasir Kura
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday that the federal government would not rush the implementation of its policies and programmes aimed at reforming the country’s oil and gas sector.
The President said this when he was bestowed with the “Grand Comrade of the Productive Workers of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry” award by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“I fully agree with you that reforming the Petroleum Industry will unlock numerous untapped potentials for the nation. However, these reforms must be well thought out and must have the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians as its core objective.
“Such reforms cannot and must not be rushed if we must get it right. We are still suffering from the effects of many legacy policies that were rushed and passed without fully appreciating the consequences the provisions embedded in them.
“Whatever decision we take now will impact either negatively or positively on generations to come. The Petroleum Industry Bill was conceived to ensure Nigeria’s future generations are positively impacted by its oil wealth. It was never about short-term gains. I want to assure you that dialogue on the Petroleum Industry Bill is still ongoing. At the end, we will have a bill that the nation will be proud of,” he said.
On the state of refineries across the country, the President said the Public Private Partnership approach adopted to rehabilitate existing refineries has taken longer than expected to achieve the desired results.
He said, however, that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has concluded the process for selecting private sector partners that would rehabilitate the refineries.
“I am informed that they are working out finances and hopefully, work will commence soon,” he said.
In his remarks, national president of NUPENG, Mr. Williams Akporeha, who led other executive members of the union, accused the industry players of flouting some Executive Orders issued by the President.
He said contract outsourcing and expatriate quota issue still remain major problems in the oil and gas sector.
He also stressed the need for government to check continued importation of petroleum products, saying that the redundancy of the refineries was taking its toll on NUPENG members while the nation suffers foreign capital flight.
“Your administration’s practical steps in bridging the wide gap between the rich and the poor in the country through various initiatives such as Trade Moni, support for farmers, embargoes on luxury/ostentatious goods, TSA, school feeding, have gone a long way in alleviating poverty in the country.
“NUPENG is also worried about the non-implementation of Executive Order on local content and employment of Nigerians in the oil sector because multinational firms are still not appropriately employing Nigerian graduates.
“The delegation further appealed to the President to direct security agencies to intensify surveillance and protection of oil pipelines and other infrastructure, and concluded by wishing Buhari victory in 2019,” he said.
