President of the Institute of Mediators and Conciliators, ICMC, Dr. Brown Ogbeifun, in this interview with SweetCrude, speaks on a wide range of issues in the petroleum industry including the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, among others. Excerpts… As a former President of PENGASSAN, 1st Deputy President General of TUC and now President of ICMC, it appears you no longer comment on topical issues like PIB, insecurity and the crisis in Rivers State that may impact on the oil and gas industry? Though the leadership positions I held before or I am still holding now entrust me with some responsibilities, I am honestly doing my best to contribute my quota to peace building, which may not be seen on the pages of newspaper. I have been working quietly with our social dialogue partners in the oil and gas industry to achieve industrial peace in the sector. Can you give examples of such undertakings? Mediation between parties is absolutely confidential and I am not permitted to reveal the identities of the companies. However, I have been involved in resolving conflicts in some of our oil and gas industries, which ordinarily would have thrown this nation into severe crisis with very devastating strikes and inconveniences to Nigerians. For me, this is an undertaking of inestimable value to this country, a country that is heavily in contestation with insecurity. I am also involved in preaching the dialogue option among my comrades, wherever and whenever we have such opportunities.This I do in seminars and workshops. I am also in the faculty of the ICMC that train Mediators who are the foot soldiers of peaceand reformation in Nigeria. All these are efforts geared towards achieving peace in oil and gas sector and Nigeria in general. What is your take on the PIB? The Petroleum Industry Bill has very good intentions. The laws we currently use to drive oil and gas process in Nigeria are dispersed in about16 pieces. This Bill seems to streamline these into one readable text. Furthermore, the laws and fiscal regimes put in place at the infancy of the oil and gas industry when we were virtually begging investors to invest in Nigeria, are still applied today and time is running out in the oil and gasindustry. It is like saying that the clothes a child wore in its infancy should still be worn at 18 years. Paradoxical, is not it? This definitely cannot develop our oil and gas sector beyond developing other economies. If we must fix the energy sector, unemployment, infrastructure, then we do not have readymadealternatives to PIB. Secondly, the agencies involved in oil and gas business, have several overlapping and chaotic functions that need to be streamlined. This Bill is supposed to do that. Thirdly, the Federal Government has been accused of opacity in running the oil and gas business. The Bill in all intent and purposes is trying to enthrone openness, transparency and accountability in the governance structure of the Oil and Gas post –PIB. If the Bill is passed, it becomes easier to monitor the inflow and outflow from crude business. The issues of deregulation, subsidy and the commercialization of critical agencies in the value chain of the oil and gas sector becomes a done deal from the point of law. We shall now do oil and gas business as a world class industry. There are fears that International Oil Companies, IOCs, and other investors may leave the sector because of the perceived stringent fiscal regimes in the PIB? Let me correct an impression that the stringent Fiscal regimes will drive the IOCs out of Nigeria. It will not because even without PIB they are already divesting massively from Nigeria to other areas of Africa because of insecurity, illegal bunkering,corruption, policy inconsistency, tax issues, vandalism of their pipelines and equipment by vandals. All these have been articulated as causes of increasing overhead, which is compounded by the yearly negotiation cycles between them and their Unions; and the increasing hardstance of the Union. Rightly or wrongly, they may have their justifications for the assertions. PIB or no PIB, those that will go shall still go and those that will stay will. In several Oil producing countries, the counterpart subsidiaries of the Nigerian companies operate strictly according to the laws of the countries where they are resident. In more than 80 percent of the countries that have oil and gas driving their economies, expatriates do not remain on the job for more than two years. We do know that some of the expatriates stay on thejob for so many years without compliance with the understudy clauses. The resultant effect is that Nigerians are not empowered to take over their duties. Apart from Nigeria, no government allows the luxury of breaching the expatriate rules as they do in Nigeria. In addition, the fiscal regimes are more stringent than we have here yet they are not divesting or quitting from those countries.The truth is that going by our current Fiscal regimes, monitoring strategies and expatriate quota policy, Nigeria remains the most generous and our take in financial terms remains one of the lowest in the world. So the truth is companies are allowed to relocate where they so desire. It is forthe Nigerian nation to know who our true friends in plenty and adversities are and respond appropriately when we are out of the woods. Lastly, those who will remain will surely do so no matter the turn of events. I sincerely agree with those expressing such fears. Just take a look at the subsidy and pension scams. Aggregate the role of some of the prosecutors and some judicial officials and you will find a huge conspiracy theory at play. But I can tell you that the publishing of government allocations at all levels is having some reflective impact and Nigerians are now asking questions more than ever before. I can take a bet that the docile nature of Nigerians watching their leaders aggrandize and squander their commonwealth will meet with very stiff resistance very soon. I believe Nigerians will in no time come to shift focus to tackling identified corrupt prosecutors and judicial officials that are giving lifelines to corrupt politicians/public officials. If Nigerianswant better life for this generation and the next, fighting corruption will form the agenda of like minds very soon. So, let them leave Nigerians to worry about that. As a mediator, the threat of leaving Nigeria if the laws are not made to reflect the position of the IOCs’ proposition to me is in bad faith bargaining. People must come to the negotiation table with an open mind. I don’t know of any European government that will want to change its laws and we will threaten them not to do so. For instance, what we pay for foreign travels in Nigeria is one of the highest for the same distance in the world. The visa fee paid by Nigerians in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. In the face of harsh economic environment and realities, most advanced nations hardly consider foreigners for any available jobs that their citizens can do. Shall we then lead a pack of protesters to boycott their products and services in the face of this discrimination? Instead of the threat, my appeal to them is to sit down to discussions using the instruments of legal lobbying, which is permissible in a democracy, moral suasion and win-approach. They need to work with the Nigerian state to ensure that when the PIB is passed, the government is pressured to put in place an environment that is conducive for their businesses. They should logically put their thoughts across and stop threatening the Nigerian nation, because if they leave, others are waiting totake their positions. Still on PIB, the Unions on the other hand have people issues with transfers across the new agencies, career progression, pension, cohesiveness of the union and employment security etc. The fears are germaine but a well-articulated and intentioned PIB will lead to job creation in the long run and there is a window period of 24 months to resolve labour issues before the law fully takes effect. My appeal is that all the stakeholders must come together and see Nigeria as the essential goose that should be protected against dangers and death in order for her to continue to lay golden eggs. What will your comment be on the crisis in Rivers State? In a democracy, people within the same political party may differ in opinions. People are bound to be ambitious to the annoyance of others. But this should not have erupted into the kind of film we watched on the floor of the Rivers State House of Assembly in which human beings were being planked with the Mace. It is unfortunate, unacceptable, condemnable, and offensive to all known socio-political ethos and a very big distraction to governance. We must be careful also not to redefine democracy to mean where minority will have their wayagainst the majority. For the sake of the citizens of Rivers’ State, all the parties must come to table quickly for the sake of the survival of our democracy. Politicians should please remember that the very people they swore to protect and defend will be the losers in this avoidable conflict. We should not forget in a hurry how militancy was imported into the Niger Delta polity. It nearly consumed this nation. Kidnapping, which is an outcome of the painful past hasnot been effectively dealt with.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 09:08:28 +0000
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