The Nation reports that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“NEITI”) has revealed that the Senate has made a fundamental error in the PIGB by failing to “enshrine NEITI principles in the governance process”. The article quotes the NEITI Director of Communications, Ogbonnaya Orji, who alleges that “the former Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) specifically provided that all the processes in the oil and gas should be guided by the principle of extractive industry transparency initiative. We have not seen this provided in the PIGB and the House of Representatives needs to correct that.”
If indeed this represents the position of NEITI, we respectfully disagree with it in this matter. In our view, the provisions of the NEITI Act will apply to all entities created under the PIGB. There is, therefore, no need to reimpose this obligation in the PIGB.