Nigeria: Govt Urged to Evolve Post-Oil Economic Blueprint

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said that the significant drop in oil pricing necessitate an alternative economic blueprint not dependent on oil.

The Executive Director of the organisation, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, who said this today in Abuja at a briefing added that ethnic and political colouration given environmental challenges, has denied seeing them as national issues to be tackle collectively.

He said this has led to the failure of the Ogoniland oil spill cleanup until President Muhammadu Buhari’s latest action, and also the desert encroachment in the North and other environmental challenges across the country.

“Nigeria needs a new economic pathway that is not dependent on fossil fuels. Let us put a halt to the plundering of natural resources in the name of foreign exchange earnings. This has so far been counter to local production and consumption. First, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill 2015 (PIGB) for oil sector reform currently before the National Assembly falls short of peoples’ expectation because it does not recognized local participation in the management of natural resources.

“The Bill is not comprehensive and highly deceptive because although it anticipates other Bills, yet the timing, shape and content of such future bills are virtually unknown. The Bill should not be passed by the lawmakers unless the promoters put all the cards on the table in respect to other expected bills and incorporate critical views from the impacted communities and civil society groups,” Ojo said.