Fast-track PIA Implementation, PENGASSAN Tells Tinubu

Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday implored the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use his incoming administration to fast track the implementation of different sections of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to the benefit of Nigerians.

The association said aggressive implementation of the provision of the Act will deepen the development of the midstream sector of the Nigeria oil and gas industry and lead to the provision of gas infrastructure and help in harnessing the vast gas reserves in the country.

PENGASSAN national president, Comrade Festus Osifo who spoke at the 7th Triennial National Delegates’ Conference in Abuja, also warn that the implementation of the PIA must not be made to pass through arm-twisting and tactical bureaucratic monsters that bedeviled the PIB.

Speaking on the theme, “Equity and Social Justice: Advocacy for Equal Opportunities for All Workers”, Osifo equally presented 12-point expectations for the incoming administration to includes; constitution of development and trust fund for the host community and efforts to address issues of multiple exchange rates in the economy.

PENGASSAN also expect the new government to declare state of emergency in the food and agriculture sector to address prediction of over 25 million Nigerians projected to face hunger and malnutrition this year and development of new approach to address the rising country’s debt crisis.

He said, “The incoming government must do all within its reach to see to the conclusion of the current rehabilitation effort and initiatives that is currently in place so that our nation’s refinery will come up in no time.

We expect that the new federal government should immediately review the current security strategy, rejig the entire security architecture, provide more funding and shift from reactionary approach to focusing on intelligence gathering that will proactively help to nip such planned attacks in the bud”.

Other expectations from the new government includes; empowering of mortgage institutions to provide houses for masses, appointing head of anti-corrupt institutions devoid of political consideration, criminalising foreign medical treatment with public funds and improved power supply.