THE Senate at the peak of the crisis in Rivers State
House of Assembly passed a resolution directing the
Inspector-General of Police, Abubakar Mohammed, to
transfer the state Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph
Mbu to another state following his alleged role in the
crisis. However, about two months after the
resolution was passed, nothing has changed. In an
interview with Vanguard, Chairman, Senate
Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang , said
that the Senate has not received a formal information
on compliance with the directive. He also spoke on
other issues including the Petroleum Industry Bill
(PIB). Excerpts:
The Senate recently took over the Rivers State House
of Assembly due to the crisis there. How far has the
upper chamber gone with legislation in that state?
Legislation in respect of Rivers State would only arise
if, one, there is a matter in that state requiring
legislation. Two, the three legislators representing
Rivers State have become the legislators for the state
and we have become the legislature for the state. If
there is any matter rising from there, they will draw
our attention. Secondly, if the governor of the state
has a matter in which he needs legislative backing, he
will write to us. But as at now, we have not received
any measure seeking either a budgetary approval or an
amendment to any law or a bill seeking to amend the
law or a bill seeking to appoint a commissioner or any
other bill.
Amendment of any law
So, if you do not send a bill seeking to approve the
appointment of a commissioner, we cannot consider
such a commissioner. If there is no bill seeking for a
budget to be passed, we cannot pass it. If you have
not sent a bill that is requiring the amendment of any
law, we cannot originate it because we have not
found anything wrong in the way you run the
administration of the state to which we are the
legislature.
Do you have a time frame as the legislature in that
state?
We have a time frame under the constitution. When it
is over, it will be over. The constitution says six
months in the first instance.
What is the National Assembly doing to ensure that
what led to its taking over the Rivers State House of
Assembly did not recur?
I think we will ensure that, that does not happen and
of course, we gave the Senate President the mandate
to interface and I believe he may be interfacing at that
level with the governor and the political party to bring
about peace.
Senator Enang
At the height of the Rivers’ crisis, the Senate came up
with a resolution mandating the Inspector General of
Police to transfer the state Commissioner of Police, Mr
Joseph Mbu but the man is still there …
By our regulations, we made a resolution and we
asked somebody to do something. We are not yet
aware because nothing has been reported to us that it
has been effected or not effected. We are yet to have a
formal situation but when we have a formal situation,
we will be able to speak and act on it.
Does that mean that you don’t follow up on your
resolutions?
When we pass a resolution, we communicate to the
executive. It is for the executive to react and when we
have heard about the reaction, we follow up; it is not
all resolutions that are implemented.
Is the National Assembly not worried about the
situation in the Kaduna State House of Assembly
where the Speaker was impeached by 18 out of 33
lawmakers?
At that stage, it still remains the internal affairs of the
Kaduna State House of Assembly and it has not come
to us yet and so, we cannot speak on it.
What do you think should be done to restore sanity
in the aviation sector?
We need a complete overhaul of the aviation sector
by asking for a technical audit of each of the airlines
and aircraft by foreign experts, to ascertain the state
of the aircraft, independent of what agent we would
employ as the certifying body because I have a
problem believing that they are being honest about
the actual state of most of the air crafts that are
flying in our airspace.
On what is happening to the PIB after being passed in
the Senate
I think you know that the bill has been passed on the
floor of the Senate and you saw that we held a public
hearing on the bill. We are now at the stage of
considering the report on the hearing and the
chairman of the committee on the bill, Senator
Emmanuel Paulker, is of the opinion that we should
call and discuss with more persons. We have met with
the Minister of Petroleum Resources; we have met the
management of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, and other interest groups. They
made their submissions and having made the
submissions to us, we will be considering them.
On allegations that some interests are not allowing
the bill to see the light of the day…
It has seen the light of the day by passing through the
second reading. What we are doing right now is to
bring out and look at the reports of the committees
immediately we resume from the Sallah vacation.
And that was one of the reasons that we adjourned,
seeing that there are many reports pending in some
committees and the number of people required in
those committees, sometimes we cannot form
quorum on the floor and in those committees.
Interest of Nigerians
Like the PIB, there are four committees involved; one
committee on petroleum upstream, petroleum
downstream, committee on judiciary and committee
on gas. I chair one of these committees but I cannot
be absent from the floor of the Senate. Therefore,
that is why we have adjourned and concluded that we
should go and sit and tidy the reports.
What about the areas of contention in the bill?
That is why the committees meet; that is why the
committee is asking, what do members say about this
provision? Of course, given what we have and the
reality of the law and the interests of Nigerians, what
should we do? That is the essence of the committee.
We are taking it clause by clause now to say no to
some of them and we are going to see a tidy bill that
will be acceptable to Nigerians.
How soon do you envisage that to be?
I am believing that as soon as we resume from the
Sallah vacation. Our Muslim brothers that will be
proceeding on Hajj will be back by between 15th and
16th and by 18th, the Sallah celebrations will be over.
By 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st, the committees will be
meeting and then by the 22nd, the report will be
ready and they will lay it before us.
Situational report
Let Nigerians not be worried about the PIB because it
is not as if there is no law to regulate the oil sector. It
is only that we just want to put all the laws together
in one instrument so that it will be easy to pick up
one volume of law containing everything about the
petroleum industry; about gas, the upstream, the
downstream, the service companies, the IOCs,
marketing, subsidy, the Petroleum Technology
Development Fund, etc,, you will see one law in one
instrument and in one document.
On when Senate committees undertaking oversight
functions will submit their reports?
If you see the Order Paper and the Notice that I
published two weeks ago, I gave the list of the
committees and the days they will lay the situational
reports on the floor. For a committee to be able to lay
a situational report before the Senate, it has to go on
oversight to see what is happening in the respective
ministries. It is to comply with the situational report,
that is why they have to go on oversight to see the
projects on ground, see the contractors, see the
ministries, find out how much money has been
released for each of the projects, find out how much
is remaining for that project and find out whether it
needs more money in next year’s budget. Therefore, it
is necessary for them to do the oversight now and
part of why we adjourned is to give these committees
enough time because most of them that want to write
reports must see what is on ground before writing
their reports.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/pib-well-give-nigerians-popular-law-senator-enang/