Oil workers under the auspices of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) have faulted President Tinubu’s Executive Order, barring the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) from deductions, including the 30 percent management fee directly from oil revenues.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Lagos, PENGASSAN president, Comrade Festus Osifo, described the president’s action order as a direct attack on the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), pointing out that such an order cannot supersede the law of the land.
According to him, an executive order cannot override the provision of a law.
Besides, he said the executive order, if allowed to stay, would have negative impact on the economy, cause challenges and industrial issues in the sector, as well as set the industry backward, make investors lack confidence in Nigeria, and trigger redundancy of workers.
Osifo said: “The Executive Order that was signed by the President yesterday (Wednesday) is a direct attack of the provisions of the PIA. The provisions of the PIA are section 8, section 9, and section 64 of the PIA. What the president has done is that he has used an Executive Order to set aside a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is exactly what the President has done.”
He said it is quite troubling that indirectly, the president is telling the investors and international communities that, with an executive order, he can set aside the law of the land.
“This is an aberration. This should never have happened. The President is telling Nigerians and the international community that he can use a law to set aside even the ground law; that he can use a law to set aside the provisions of our Constitution or the laws that are enacted by the National Assembly. This is not correct. This is not how it should be.
“That is why we believe that the president was misled. Because if this sails through, what is going to happen is that the international communities are going to lose faith in the PIA. The investors are going to lose faith in the PIA,” he said.
As a way forward, Osifo called on President Tinubu to recall the executive order and have a second look at it in order not to jeopardise the gains made by the country and government since the PIA was enacted in August 2021.
Failure to do that, he said the union will continue its consultations/engagement with government’s agencies and sister unions before taking the final decisions
“The president should recall that executive order, have a second look at it because we know that the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has done everything possible to attract investment to the oil and gas industry.
“We cannot use one single executive order to set aside all the good work that the President has embarked upon since he assumed office as far as the oil and gas industry is concerned,” Osifo said.
“So this is quite troubling. This is quite alarming. And we want the President to act fast because not doing this is going to jeopardise the gains that we have made since the PIA was enacted in August 2021,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, issued an executive order to safeguard and enhance oil and gas revenues for the Federation, curb wasteful spending, eliminate duplicative structures in this critical sector of the national economy, and redirect resources for the benefit of the Nigerian people.
The President signed the EO in pursuance of Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). The Executive Order is anchored on Section 44(3) of the Constitution, which vests ownership, control, and derivative rights in all minerals, mineral oils, and natural gas in, under, and upon any land in Nigeria, including its territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone, in the government of the Federation.
Besides, Osifo said there were also some provisions in that executive order that he felt they were not saying the entire truth.
According to him, it was not correct that 30 per cent of the revenue that comes from oil companies, the production sharing contract, goes to NNPC
According to Osifo, the actual percentage that gets to NMPC eventually is somewhere below two per cent.
He said the group is bothered about the executive order because what the president has done is to set aside the law that he took Nigeria as a country over 10 years to enact.
“We are bothered because today we have our members in NNPC. Our members in NNPC today are going close to 4,000 Nigerians working there. We have the entire staff strength of NNPC. If this is allowed to sail through the way it is today, I can tell you that in the next few months our members are in danger of being declared as redundant because the company may not be able to meet it’s obligations to our members.
“So it’s going to bring about a lot of challenges in the industry, a lot of industrial issues in the industry. So this is another reason why we are worried. This is another reason why we felt that some of the provisions that were propagated to the President in that executive order that he signed were not correct,” he said
“For example, they said that 30.per cent of the Frontier Exploration Fund goes to NNPC Limited. It’s not correct. That money doesn’t actually go to NNPC.
“There is a Frontier Exploration account that the money goes to. It doesn’t go to NNPC.
“It was also assumed that the royalties and all that goes to NUPRC and personal accounts and all that, no. That money as of today goes to Federal Government’s accounts. So there are provisions there that are not correct, Osifo said.
The union continues: “Yes, we acknowledge that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has the right to enact executive orders. We know that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has a duty and responsibility to protect and safeguard the industry.
“But we strongly believe that in this particular case, the President has been misled. We strongly believe that the people that are advising the President did not actually tell him the entire truth. Because the President that we know is someone who is travelling all over the world to bring about investment.
“He’s someone that is moving from one part of the country to another, and one part of the world to another, to bring in investors, to ensure that Nigeria’s economy thrives. If the President was exposed to the entire truth regarding this recent executive order, we know that he would have acted otherwise.
“Because being somebody that has worked in the industry, being somebody that has worked in ExxonMobil in the past, being somebody that has understood how this industry has evolved over time, he wouldn’t have appended his signature to that executive order that was passed.”
