NLC Advocates Sale of NNPC Shares to All Nigerians

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has  canvassed that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should be transformed into a public liability company where every Nigerian can own shares.
NLC said the House of Representatives does not seem to sufficiently capture this desire of the Nigerian people, describing it as the major blight in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Speaking with The Nation, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said NLC, as part of its input to the PlB during its appearance at the public hearing, canvassed that the NNPC should be transformed into a public liability company where every Nigerian can own shares.
He said this desire to make the Nigerian people stakeholders in the commonwealth of the country appears to have fared quite well in the Senate’s consideration.
He said: ” We will like to draw the attention of the National Assembly of the need to handle with utmost care the very sensitive issue of the unbundling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“The bill as passed by the upper chamber of the National Assembly retained the recommendation of the Joint Committee in Clause 53 which empowers the Minister of Petroleum Resources to incorporate the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation as a limited liability company to be known as NNPC Limited.
“We are concerned that unlike the Senate representation of Clause 53, Clause 53 of the PIB as passed by the House of Representatives does not seem to sufficiently capture this desire of the Nigerian people. This is a major blight in the PIB. It is not good enough.
“We urges the National Assembly during its Conference to harmonize the two versions of the passed bill pursuant to the Senate’s representation of Clause 53 by effectively sanctioning the transformation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation into a Public Liability Company.

“This would project the democratic appeal of the Petroleum Industry Bill as a legal instrument that caters for the masses of Nigeria.
“Poor and ordinary Nigerians who have endured the shorter end of the stick under the old petroleum law deserve better.”
On the percentage of revenue proposed in the PIB as accruing to oil producing communities, Wabba  said it is important that the conference committee of the National Assembly ensures equity in the harmonisation of the three per cent  proposed by the Senate and five percent  by the House of Representatives, especially in a manner that gives a sense of justice, fairness and inclusion to oil bearing and oil producing communities in the country.
He said this is because these communities bear the impact of crude oil exploration and production.
Speaking further, Wabba said the Congress also observed the non-inclusion of workers in the governing structures of the proposed commercial and regulatory institutions and organisations that would emerge from the unbundling of the NNPC.
Wabba , however, commended the Senate and the House of Representatives for the passage, describing it as a good news.More at: The Nation.