By Harry Awurumibe Editor Abuja Bureau
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has warned against food riots breaking out across the country due to the excruciating economic hardship Nigerians are suffering at the moment.
This is even as he is seeking for the repeal of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), saying those who designed it made serious errors. He said PIA has neither favoured the oil-bearing host communities nor stopped the perennial fuel scarcity in Nigeria.
The legal luminary who spoke on a national television monitored by Prompt News in Abuja on Thursday fears that the economic hardship may result to civil unrest as average Nigerians can no longer make ends meet, pointing out that with scarcity of food starring the people in the face, they may resort to riots.
Said he: “Nigerians do not have any reason to be poor and going hungry. No, we should not be hungry or poor with all the huge natural endowment God blessed us with especially with the huge oil reserves we have. The federal government should do something about the hunger in the land”.
Agbakoba however stated that PIA has not solved the problems in the oil industry, lamenting that citizens are not benefiting from the PIA, arguing that if it is beneficial to Nigerians why is the country still witnessing fuel scarcity.
“I am seeking for the repeal of PIA because it is not serving the purposes it was designed to do. We are still witnessing fuel scarcity in Nigeria.
“I can remember that we suffered the first fuel scarcity in Nigeria in 1972 and today fuel scarcity is persistent in the country”, he said.
Agbakoba insists that commercialization of oil industry by government and the coming on stream of PIA have not made petroleum products especially fuel available or cheaper in Nigeria.
He therefore asked the federal government to adopt the development oil model instead of the current model termed contract oil.
According to Agbakoba, the development oil model sees oil and gas as not just a source of revenue, but as a tool for national advancement.
He noted that the concept of development oil stands in stark contrast to the traditional contract oil approach which Nigeria has implemented over the years.
He stated that the current model allows international oil companies to be co-owners of joint ventures extracting oil, selling the same and sharing the profit with the government.
He said the International Oil Companies (IOCs) had too much control over operations, arguing that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) played no active role in key operational decisions.
The legal luminary lamented the level of capital flight in the petroleum industry through payments to foreign contractors and service providers; the use of foreign banks for transactions and the repatriation of profits to IOC home countries. READ ALSO:
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Said he: “This chameleon we have as NNPCL needs to be unrobed. It is the problem with Nigeria. NNPCL is everything but efficient and has become a cause instead of blessing to Nigeria”.
Reminded that NNPCL is not a regulator in the oil industry, Agbakoba countered thus:”I will not agree to that narratives because I know for sure that NNPCL is a regulator because it is the sole importer of fuel into Nigeria and NNPCL fixes prices for petroleum products”
