Non-passage of PIB has cost Nigeria $200bn – Kalu

Hon. Benjamin Kalu is the member representing Bende Federal Constituency of Abia State and spokesperson of the House of Representatives. In this interview with IGBEAKU ORJI, he speaks on some national issues, including the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as well as the Electoral Bill before the National Assembly

How has it been as the spokesman of the House of Representatives?

Well, it’s been a wonderful experience because we went there to serve our people; we didn’t go there because of the title. I am happy that my constituents started feeling the efforts I have been making from the first day, starting from motions, bills and also representative function. We have made sure that the responsibilities of a federal representative are not missing in my outing.

So, I have always carried Bende people along. When you see me speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, it’s not about me, it’s about Bende people. When you see me proposing legislation; it’s also about how my people will benefit from that piece of legislation as people who are part of Nigeria.

As a legislator who wants nation building, I believe that by building the nation, my people also will be built. That’s what has kept me busy since I got there. And the responsibility that was given to me as the spokesman of the House added extra burden in my functions in the House but I have tried my best to see that the image of the National Assembly is better than the way I met it by making sure that I by bridge the gap between the parliament and the people through the process of public engagement which we have tried to put in place as a structure.

We are starting with sectoral engagement at the moment and hopefully Nigerians will feel the sense of belonging and not be estranged from their parliament because we call ours ‘the Peoples Parliament.’

Specifically, can you tell us what you are doing or intend to do on the Electoral Bill and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that is before the House?

The Electoral Bill as you know, we live in a dynamic society, and we have found out that the Electoral Act that we have in place does not have all it takes to bridge the gaps that exist in the minds of the citizens of this country with regards to their expectations, their wishes, their desires, their ambition in building this democratic institution.

What we are trying to do is to bridge those gaps with this Electoral Bill that we are going for amendment. And it may not be complete because there is no piece of legislation that is 100 per cent but it will be able to bridge the various observed gaps, with the hope that in the future, we will come up with new innovations that will lead to legislation that will also bridge further gaps.

And that’s how we will keep going until we emerge as an advanced democratic system. We are less than 20 years in our democracy as you know, and sometimes we are here as Nigerians comparing our democracy with that of the United States, which is about 200 years.

If you look at their democracy critically, you will observe that they have passed strucvarious stages of development. They have various stages of struggle and they have advanced their democracy to the level where it is now through various amendments, correction of errors, bridging of gaps, until they got where they are now. Today, they have become the inspiration for the practice of our own democracy. Today, they have become the yardstick for measuring our democracy.

Today, they have built a good roadmap, which most nations of the world are following. But suffice to say that the last elections in the United States have left a lot of things for us to copy as we look at our Electoral Act. As you know, the President of the United States is struggling for his political life at the moment to return to office.

This is strange in African countries. Strange in the sense that most people who are occupying positions find it easy to get back into that position because they have executive power and they can influence one or two positions and you see them back in office.

It was only the time of President Goodluck Jonathan that an incumbent did not come back to office. Oftentimes in Africa, you find an incumbent not struggling to come back. It is so because they have built a democratic system that does not recognise the faces of leaders but recognises the strength of the structure that is put in place.

Their system is in auto pilot, which means that irrespective of who is managing it, their unbiased umpire has been set in a platform that is difficult to corrupt and that is why whether you are incumbent or not, equal opportunity is granted to those who vie for offices. We are looking forward to a time in Nigeria, when the system will be able to defend the franchise of our people, defend democracy, our system will defend the right of the people to vote and defend their votes.

Through the electoral system we are getting there, to make sure we also factor that in. Another thing that is not good to be taken from the American political system that just took place now is the agitation for judiciary intervention in the election that the people spoke their mind.

We have seen it a lot happening in Nigeria that hardly do you have election without people going to court. This is something that needs to be discouraged. We didn’t believe that it will come up in the United States election, but it’s happening, where a President is contesting the election in Pennsylvania and all the rest of them in court. Democracy should be allowed to exist. Once you win, you win gallantly; if you fail, you fail gallantly.

Mandate should not just come through technicalities that exist in the four walls of the judiciary institution; let it be determined by the mandate that is coming from the people whose rights it is to decide who leads them.

So, why we pick some things from the American democracy, the new introduction that President Donald Trump is bringing on board is what we are discouraging our democratic system from imbibing.

That is it about the Electoral bill. Also, suffice to say that we have innovations that technology has supported because of the gap created by COVID-19 and we are trying to make sure that electronic voting, the use of technology, is more advanced than it is currently in our Electoral Act. On PIB, you know that the bill has been there for quite a long time and our inability to pass it for over 10 years now has cost the country about $200 billion.

This means that if we are trying to make sure that revenue leakages are blocked, especially in the oil sector, which is the major sector of the economy, then we need to pass the right legislation that will help us do better.

From 1958 till now, there have been a lot of laws in place. About 16 laws have been in place before now and none of these laws have been comprehensive. That is why the omnibus law that is coming on board is the PIB. The PIB will address some of those holes that exist in these 16 laws.

These holes need to be bridged because you find out that most of the time, we enter into Joint Venture (JV) relationship with some of the Inter-national Oil companies (IOC’s) at the end of the day you find out we are not able to fulfill our own financial obligations because the laws are not there sharpened very well to be able to handle some of our interest. What we have ended up doing is to bring up what they call contract sharing agreement (production sharing contract) between us and the IOCs. But the international community is saying it is not as transparent, it does not have integrity as it is supposed to be and based on that the need for PIB cannot be over emphasised. The host communities are not being taken care of by the current laws that exist. The PIB will take care of it.

The fiscal regime in the petroleum sector is not good enough to be competitive, especially in this era where oil and gas is discovered in all parts of Africa. For us to be competitive, the legal framework of our laws must be well tailored to make sure that competitors will not be able to beat us out of the game.

I must say that with the new tax regime that is coming on board, it’s going to be healthy on the two parties, both the IOCs and for us, who own the oil and gas. There are a lot of innovations coming up, especially with regard to the functions of the minister and also the councils. We are changing the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to become a limited liability company and all the rest of them. There are about 10 grounds which I may not be able to remember all of them.

Though this bill is 319 sections with seven schedules and five chapters there are few areas that Nigeria needs to focus on. And you see the new introduction that we are bringing on board to make sure that this PIB is what will help Nigeria achieve more revenue. Because that is what we are looking for now, especially knowing that the era of oil and gas is fading and it’s important that we structure and strengthen our laws to make sure that we benefit from what is remaining from the age of oil.

What has become of the probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) the House of Representatives?

The NDDC probe was thoroughly done. I was part of the investigation. I was at the forefront of the questioning. The report has been completed by the committee and has been laid before the House for consideration. It is no longer in the control of the committee at the moment, it is before the House. The leadership of the House, after the budget which is on the front burner, I’m sure they are going to look at that and make their resolutions that would be forwarded to the executive. You know, we usually pass the bulk for the executive for them to take it from there.

We noticed that work has commenced on the Umuahia -Bende-Ohafia-Arochukwu road. Can you tell us what happened?

When I came to the House, I found out that this road you are talking about leads to my own house. From 1976 till now, when MCC handled it last, it has not been given adequate attention. It has caused a whole lot of hardship for our people. On the floor of the National Assembly when I arrived, the first motion that was moved, which is known as House motion 001 was moved by me. And one of the things I canvassed, as one of the prayers in that motion, was that road, which has also been affected by ecological problem was mentioned and based on that, the attention of the Ministry of Works and Ecology was drawn to it including FERMA.

I started lobbying because what we do there in our representative role is to lobby for some of these things to be done, when we present the needs of our people. So, I approached the Minister, Babatunde Fashola, who has been very kind and who knows the road very well. Both that road and the road leading to Itumbuzor were presented to him. And I am sure he will agree with me how much I troubled him for over one year, and luckily enough, it made the budget.

The Federal Executive Council was able to approve that road for about N12 billion. And in this budget through the magnanimity of the ministry of Works and the Minister himself about N2.3 billion was approved for the road to start.

But suffice to say that I also work with the Federal Maintenance Agency (FERMA) through project proposals that I sent to them and it made the budget for the amendment of the road to be done for about N178 million, just to start fixing it until the big money that we didn’t know that would be approved came through. Both that and Etiti Ulo road were captured in the budget. But I can assure you that it has been awarded to two companies.

They will start fixing it waiting for when the big one, which is coming from the Ministry of Works, will come. It has been a long walk and we have the letters. We have all the communications to show how much effort we have made to make sure that the road is fixed in no distant time.

Nigerians have blamed the National Assembly for late passage of the budget, which has impeded its full implementation. How do you think this issue would be addressed to ensure that whatever is appropriated is used for the purpose it was approved for?

The work of the National Assembly is making of laws and also oversighting the laws that have been made, especially the institutions that we make laws for. And one of the laws we make is the budget. It is called Appropriation Act. The 9th Assembly came on board and we have the mantra that is called ‘Nation Building, the Joint Task.’ One of the mandates we brought back was to make sure we pass the budget early and that we have implemented, January to December, by reversing the calendar. So, I can assure you it is going to be passed at the right time.