Mohammed Sabo Nakudu, a senator representing Jigawa South/West District of Jigawa state was elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), exemplified the saying that a round peg should be put on a round hole. He has also shown that who the cap fits should wear it.
I am saying this out of the background of his ad hoc chairmanship of petroleum sector committee and the jinx of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which he had broken. This bill has been in the National Assembly since the time of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. All effort for it to see the light of day proved a mirage, but today stakeholders in petroleum sector and all Nigerians hailed the courage and determination of Senator Nakudu and his colleagues who made sure the bill was passed under his chairmanship.
In his argument in the Senate, he said there was urgent need for the lawmakers to pass the bill in order to attract investors into the sector otherwise Nigeria would wake up one day and find that it was sitting on absolute stream of income. This is because the world is moving towards renewable energy. So very soon petrol and gas will be rendered absolute. Even now many countries are going for electric cars and other automobiles.
And who is this bold lawmaker? Nakudu was once a member of the governing board, Federal University of Technology, Minna, where his records are outstanding. He was also the chairman, Jigawa State Presidential Committee on Solid Minerals, where he had also made his mark. Driven by patriotism, he served in the Federal House of Representative for two tenures (2007-2011) and (2011-2015). He also serves as Senator between 2015 and 2019.
In the election that brought him to the Senate, Sabo scored 224,543 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, who scored 143,611 votes. This tells of the political clout the lawmaker possesses, and which he is using to the people’s advantage.
Following the 2019 election, Nakudu was assigned the chairmanship position of Senate Committee on Downstream (Petroleum) resources. This later led him to chairing the ad-hoc committee on the longstanding PIB.
The Senate on July 1, 2021 passed the PIB after nearly a year of hot deliberations.
This Bill had been revised on many occasions throughout the past 13 years since it was first presented to the National Assembly in 2008. PIB comprises a combination of 16 Nigerian petroleum laws that outline the governance framework that will attract investors, both local and foreign, into the country.
The PIB has been in the works since 2008 under the Obasanjo administration. After that successive sessions of the National Assembly had failed to pass the bill due to either the complexities of the oil industry or divergent interests.
But the current Assembly under Ahmad Lawan and ad hoc chairmanship of petroleum sector under Nakudu, saw the passing of the once controversial bill.
Speaking earlier in the month during the deliberation, Senate President Lawan said both chambers of the National Assembly were putting finishing touches to the bill, and they did!
“As I speak, our joint committee of both Senate and the House on the PIB are about to conclude writing the report which will be submitted to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“Our expectation is that we will pass the PIB within this month of June by the grace of God,” Lawan said.
In February, members of the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill have assured Nigerians that this time around, they would pass the PIB with the speed of light, and with Nakudu behind the steering wheel, they did.
In his patriotic zeal, Nakudu, on a visit to Kaduna Petrochemical and Refining Company (KPRC) regretted the comatose state of the company, which had not been functional for some years.
During the visit of the PIB committee to the KPRC, he said that the state of the refinery complex was very disappointing and worrisome.
“It’s very sad to see this kind of edifice lying comatose all these years. Looking at our economy at the moment, where the little foreign exchange we have, we are always using it to import finished petroleum products, and we have this kind of edifice and nothing is going on, apart from the implication of loss of jobs.
“Hundreds of thousands of people rely on this facility, and there is an enormous amount of money that is being spent daily to keep some of the facilities alive. It is very unfortunate, a very sad day for me. I have never been here, this is my first time, I don’t think I’m even in a good mood,” Nakudu, whose personal philosophy centres on people’s welfare stated gravely.
That visit further reinforced the need for the lawmakers to pass the PIB with the speed of light because they had clearly seen the need and necessity to pass it , with a view to revamping KRPC within the context of the PIB so it will become an asset that will benefit Nigerians.
“The revamping of this edifice would generate a lot of multiplier effect on the economy by way of creating employment and business opportunities. As such, our assessment of this place, the state with which we met this place further reinforces the need to pass the PIB with all the speed of light that it deserves so that Nigerians would have the maximum benefit of this place, especially having regards to the fact that the multiplier effect it is going to generate on the economy cannot be quantified,” he said.
Nakudu has shown that leadership is not for self-agrandisement but for the service of the people. For this singular effort, he has earned the collective confidence of Nigerians at home and abraod.
Abdullahi, a social commentator, writes from Dutse, Jigawa state.
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