The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has critised the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for describing the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as anti-people.
BMO said this is because the PIA is the outcome of a bill that the former ruling party refused to push through, in spite of its absolute majority in the National Assembly for 16 years.
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that it is clear that PDP is simply pained that President Muhammadu Buhari did in only one year what PDP could not do under three administrations because of vested interests.
“Like many Nigerians, we are amused to see PDP making a mockery of itself by berating the President for doing what previous Presidents elected on its platform could not do between 2000, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo mooted the idea of oil reforms, and 2015 when the party was kicked out of power at the centre.
“Only a gathering of people that are out to play politics with national development could be so dismissive of an oil reform bill that virtually all credible energy experts and institutions, including the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have hailed as laudable.
“By saying that the new petroleum law does not reflect the will of the people, we can only wonder whether a party that was in power at the centre for 16 years no longer have regards for democratic institutions like the National Assembly which has representations from all parts of the country.
“We know that the joint committee of the two chambers, which incidentally included PDP members, consulted widely with all stakeholders and also held public hearings on PIB before arriving at what was later passed into law”.
BMO also challenged PDP to see if its view tallies with the global reaction to President Buhari’s decision to give his assent to the bill.
“Going through the party’s position, it is so obvious that it was just interested in rabble rousing and that’s why it believed that the three percent Host Community fund is enough to render the PIA untenable.
“It is also not surprising that the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), which has never seen anything good in President Buhari’s administration, described the signing of the bill into law as a sad day for the region.
“But it is gratifying that every single and credible energy expert interviewed in the media have good things to say about the new law, especially with its potentials to open up new opportunities in the oil and gas industry.
“We also agree with the Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) that the new law is the first step to addressing all the wrongs against oil bearing communities, contrary to the position of PDP and its PANDEF allies that see it as a display of disdain for the region.
“We wonder why the former ruling party, which incidentally has a strong followership in the Niger Delta, was unable to ensure the passage of the bill in all those years, only to turn around to condemn an act that raised the fund for host communities from zero to three percent.
“PDP should have remained quiet or simply say ‘we started it!’, like the party leaders once said in reaction to President Buhari’s expansion of the country’s rail network”.
The group added that the opposition party needs to concentrate on cleaning up its corruption-tainted image rather than continue to ridicule itself with banal comments like its response to the PIA.